Frank Blackwell Mayer’s leather-aproned blacksmith was a potent American symbol of noble handcrafts during the increasingly mechanized 19th century. But his tools lie idle, and his anvil is nearly covered by an open newspaper, that all-important vehicle for mass dissemination of information. As a youth, Mayer would have witnessed the rise of the newspaper trade led by Arunah Abell, founder of the Baltimore Sun. By 1879, Mayer had painted a second version of The Nineteenth Century for Parke Goodwin, editor of the New York Post. Mayer used the image to illustrate an article he wrote for Scribner’s Monthly, ruminating on colonial shop signs made in the shapes of products for sale. “With the general knowledge of reading they are no longer a necessity,” he wrote. This canvas was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1869.