Not a lot is known about the work Allen did for the Hyatt Roller Bearing company. Bearings are an integral component in machinery of all sorts, so a series of ads in 1940 shows a variety of industrial cases where Hyatt Roller Bearings show their superiority. This means the underlying lithographs have no strong unifying theme on their own. We presume most lithographs were produced for the series, but some seem to predate the appearance of the ads by several years. There may have been an earlier appearance of the ads not yet found however. Based on three examples, it appears the advertisements were redone as a 1941 series of ads.

These lithographs were created in the same time frame as Allen’s signature “worker” images of steel and pipe workers. Yet while workers are present in all but one, they are mostly small background figures. Only “The Lathe” seems to have Allen’s characteristic focus on the worker, arguably “Road Grader” to a lesser extent. This may simply reflect the dictates of the commission.

-- Lynn McRae (lmcrae@stanford.edu)