3-089-515 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Jos. Hillstrom, between c1910 and c1915. Joe Hill (1879-1915), born Joel Emmanuel Hagglund and also known as Joseph Hillstrom, was a Swedish-American labour activist who was accused of murder and executed in 1915. Hill was also a songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, familiarly called the "Wobblies"). His songs include "The Preacher and the Slave" (in which he coined the phrase "pie in the sky"). Critics claimed that the trial and conviction were unfair, and Hill may well have been innocent. He is considered by some to have been a political prisoner who was executed for his political agitation through songwriting.