Heidi

Between the years 1750 and 1900, Switzerland was a country in transition. With the introduction of English spinning machines, Switzerland experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization as people migrated to the cities from the countryside looking for factory work. After a period of political instability, Switzerland became a federal state in 1848. The country entered a second phase of industrialization as Swiss engineers began building their own technology, improving the rail transport system, and constructing waterpower plants to replace the British coal-fired technology, which fueled the mass production of textiles. To this day, Switzerland remains one of the most industrialized, wealthiest countries in Europe.

With the mass migration to the cities, new technologies replaced traditional practices like spinning wool, making artisanal cheese, and patchwork farming. Mourning the loss of these erstwhile practices, 19th-century artists responded to the cultural and economic changes by saturating their works with nostalgia, calling for a return to a simpler, more traditional way of life. Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, a portrait of traditional Alpine life unspoiled by modern technology, romanticized the iconic Swiss landscape as she sought to uphold and immortalize the traditional values of Switzerland’s past (“On the Industrial History of Switzerland.” European Route of Industrial Heritage.