1. Dennis, James M. Robert Koehler’s “The Strike”: The Improbably Story of an Iconic 1886 Painting of Labor Protest. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press; 2011. 235 p. (Studies in American Thought and Culture). Notes: Here is a compelling ‘biography of a painting, “The Strike.” Painted in 1886 by German-American artist Robert Koehler, who had immigrated as a child with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this dramatic wide-angle history painting of an imagined confrontation between factory workers and their employer has had a long and tumultuous history as an international symbol of class struggle and the cause of workers’ rights. First exhibited just days before the tragic May 1886 Chicago Haymarket riot, the painting provided inspiration to those struggling at that time to win an eight-hour workday and then went on to be exhibited at international expositions in Paris, Munich, and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Although later the painting fell into obscurity for decades in the early twentieth century, “The Strike” image lived on in wood-engraved reproductions in labor publications. The painting’s purchase, restoration, and exhibition in the early 1970s by New Left activist Lee Baxandall (who was born and raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) launched it again to international notice with collectors and galleries around the world wishing to acquire it, ending with the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin, Germany, purchasing the painting in 1990 at a cost of $450,000 for its permanent collection.
  2. Kohler of Kohler. Kohler Village: A Hopeful and Stimulating Example of American Community Life. [Kohler, Wis.]: Kohler Company; 1925. 46 p. Notes: Contains “studies for the five major panels of the murals” installed by prominent American muralist Arthur Sinclair Covey during the period 1924 through 1925 in the new headquarters building of the Kohler Company in Kohler, Wisconsin.
  3. Malone, Bobbie. “Arthur Covey’s Kohler Murals: Honoring the ‘Dignity and Nobility’ of Men Who Work”. Wisconsin Magazine of History. 2009 Winter-2010 Winter; 93(2):[28]-[37]. Notes: This extensively-illustrated article describes the seven murals focusing on the workers at the Kohler factory which were created during 1924-1925 by Arthur Sinclair Covey, a prominent American muralist, in the lobby of the company’s new headquarters building in Kohler, Wisconsin. Before the two major paintings in the series–“Pouring a Mold” and “Tapping a Cupola”–were installed, the Architectural League of New York awarded them a gold medal in 1925 at the International Exposition of Architecture and the Allied Arts in New York City.The Kohler Company Headquarters building is located at 444 Highland Drive in Kohler, Wisconsin, and the lobby murals may be viewed by the members of the public Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.