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Related
Children of night superintendent, in Dickson Mill, Laurinburg, N.C. (1) Bessie Moore - runs 4 sides. Has worked two years nights. (2) Frank (smallest). Doffs. Has worked 2 yrs. nights. (3) George (largest). Looked 12 years old. Doffs--3 years of night work, was proud of the fact that he could write his name. Mother said they rather work nights because they had to put in fewer hours then. Sunday, Dec. 6, 1908. Witness, Sara R. Hine. Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina / Photo by Lewis W. Hine.
Noon hour at Massachusetts. Mill, Lindale, Ga. During the days following this, I proved the ages of nearly a dozen of these children, by gaining access to Family Records, Life Insurance papers, and through conversations with the children and parents, and found those that I could prove to be working now, or during the past year at 10 and 11 years of age, some of them having begun before they were ten. Further search would reveal more. (See Hine Report.) Location: Lindale, Georgia.
Noon hour at Massachusetts Mill, Lindale, Ga. During the days following this, I proved the ages of nearly a dozen of these children, by gaining access to Family Records, Life Insurance papers, and through conversations with the children and parents, and found those that I could prove to be working now, or during the past year at 10 and 11 years of age, some of them having begun before they were ten. Further search would reveal more. (See Hine Report). Location: Lindale, Georgia
Photos taken during noon hour, October 23rd, 1912, at the Loray Mills, Gastonia, N.C. They said they were working and went in to work. At night I counted over thirty children coming out when the whistle blew, and they seemed to be from ten to twelve years old. The Superintendent was much disturbed over the photos. Location: Gastonia, North Carolina
Family of Mrs. Donovan, 293 1/2 Highland Street, Roxbury, Massachusetts., tying tags for Dennison Co. This is the family that has worked on tags for 7 years and makes an average from that work $30 a month. One month they made $42. Mrs. D. said: "Will we ever be able to do it again?" All the children aged 13, 9, 11, 7 and the twins 4 1/2 years, help the mother. They often have to work late at night to get done. See Home Work report. Location: Roxbury, Massachusettsachusetts.
Photos taken during noon hour, October 23rd, 1912, at the Loray Mills, Gastonia, N.C. They said they were working and went in to work. At night I counted over thirty children coming out when the whistle blew, and they seemed to be from ten to twelve years old. The Superintendent was much disturbed over the photos. Location: Gastonia, North Carolina.
Noon hour at Massachusetts Mill, Lindale, Ga. During the days following this, I proved the ages of nearly a dozen of these children, by gaining access to Family Records, Insurance papers, and through conversations with the children and parents, and found these that I could prove to be working now, or during the past year at 10 and 11 years of age, some of them having begun before they were ten. Further search would reveal dozens or more. (See Hine Report). Location: Lindale, Georgia
Sunday morning at Lynchburg Cotton Mill (Virginia) Ed Tolley, the smallest, said 15 years old, but that is very doubtfull. Others in these three photos, Lucien Tolley, Herbert Aultico, Henry Daly, John Crawley. (See my report for addresses.) Most of these boys could not spell own names. All claimed to be over 14, but their disputes showed "These's a reason." They get from three to four dollars a week and some pay board. One said, "I get all over $2.60." Some were surely under twelve. All work. Lindsey Witt has been working there 2 years. Dewey Anderson, three years. Myron Cole, some time. Location: Lynchburg, Virginia
Noon hour at Massachusetts Mill, Lindale, Ga. During the days following this, I proved the ages of nearly a dozen of these children, by gaining access to Family Records, Life Insurance papers, and through conversations with the children and parents, and found these that I could prove to be working now, or during the past year at 10 and 11 years of age, some of them having begun before they were ten. Further search would reveal dozens more. (See Hine Report). Location: Lindale, Georgia
Children of night superintendent, in Dickson Mill, Laurinburg, N.C. (1) Bessie Moore - runs 4 sides. Has worked two years nights. (2) Frank (smallest). Doffs. Has worked 2 yrs. nights. (3) George (largest). Looked 12 years old. Doffs--3 years of night work, was proud of the fact that he could write his name. Mother said they rather work nights because they had to put in fewer hours then. Sunday, Dec. 6, 1908. Witness, Sara R. Hine. Location: Laurinburg, North Carolina Photo by Lewis W. Hine
Summary
Title from NCLC caption card.
In album: Mills.
Hine no. 412.
Credit line: National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
General information about the National Child Labor Committee collection is available at: loc.gov
Forms part of: National Child Labor Committee collection.
Hine grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. As a young man he had to care for himself, and working at a furniture factory gave him first-hand knowledge of industrial workers' harsh reality. Eight years later he matriculated at the University of Chicago and met Professor Frank A. Manny, whom he followed to New York to teach at the Ethical Culture School and continue his studies at New York University. As a faculty member at the Ethical Culture School Hine was introduced to photography. From 1904 until his death he documented a series of sites and conditions in the USA and Europe. In 1906 he became a photographer and field worker for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). Undercover, disguised among other things as a Bible salesman or photographer for post-cards or industry, Hine went into American factories. His research methodology was based on photographic documentation and interviews. Together with the NCLC he worked to place the working conditions of two million American children onto the political agenda. The NCLC later said that Hine's photographs were decisive in the 1938 passage of federal law governing child labor in the United States. In 1918 Hine left the NCLC for the Red Cross and their work in Europe. After a short period as an employee, he returned to the United States and began as an independent photographer. One of Hine's last major projects was the series Men at Work, published as a book in 1932. It is a homage to the worker that built the country, and it documents such things as the construction of the Empire State Building. In 1940 Hine died abruptly after several years of poor income and few commissions. Even though interest in his work was increasing, it was not until after his death that Hine was raised to the stature of one of the great photographers in the history of the medium.
According to the 1900 US Census, a total of 1,752,187 (about 1 in every 6) children between the ages of five and ten were engaged in "gainful occupations" in the United States. The National Child Labor Committee, or NCLC, was a private, non-profit organization that served as a leading proponent for the national child labor reform movement. It headquartered on Broadway in Manhattan, New York. In 1908 the National Child Labor Committee hired Lewis Hine, a teacher and professional photographer trained in sociology, who advocated photography as an educational medium, to document child labor in the American industry. Over the next ten years, Hine would publish thousands of photographs designed to pull at the nation's heartstrings. The NCLC is a rare example of an organization that succeeded in its mission and was no longer needed. After more than a century of fighting child labor, it shut down in 2017.