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Govt. Ptg. Ofc., [Washington, D.C.]
An old photo of people working in a factory. America during Great Depression and World War Two. FSA / OWI Photograph.
Govt. Ptg. Ofc., Washington, D.C.
Sadie Pfeifer, 48 inches high, has worked half a year. One of the many small children at work in Lancaster Cotton Mills. Nov. 30, 1908. Location: Lancaster, South Carolina. L.W. Hine
Interior, Govt. Ptg. Ofc., Washington, D.C.
Related
Girls running warping machines in Loray mill, Gastonia, N.C. Many boys and girls much younger. Boss carefully avoided them, and when I tried to get a photo which would include a mite of a boy working at a machine, he was quickly swept out of range. "He isn't working here, just came in to help a little." Location: Gastonia, North Carolina.
This little girl (like many others in this state) is so small she has to stand on a box to reach her machine. She is regularly employed as a knitter in London [i.e., Loudon?] Hosiery Mills. Said she did not know how long she has worked there. (See report and other photos.) Location: Loudon, Tennessee.
Every one of these children works in Hosiery Mills. The smallest girl in the middle said, "I ravels and picks up." Small boy in another mill said, " Over in Mill they work em so little they have to stand em up on boxes to reach." These children were well dressed for workers. Location: Cleveland, Tennessee.
Young girls working in Seaconnet Mill. The boys and men had just been hauling the girls around and pawing them over in "rough house" as these noon hours sometimes are. Some of the girls make advances to strangers. A very young girl (surely under 14) was helping her mother but refused to pose. Seaconnet Mill. Location: Fall River, Massachusetts
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.
Lacy (12 yrs. old) and Savannah (11 yrs old) Have worked two years. Father said "The little one is a cracker jack on spinnin', at least so the boss says. She ain't satisfied unless in the mill. The oldest one isn't so good at it. Not as quick." (Note the tense, serious looks on the younger. Older one more like a real girl.) Location: Gastonia, North Carolina
Lacy (12 yrs. old) and Savannah (11 yrs old) Have worked two years. Father said "The little one is a cracker jack on spinnin', at least so the boss says. She ain't satisfied unless in the mill. The oldest one isn't so good at it. Not as quick." (Note the tense, serious looks on the younger. Older one more like a real girl.) Location: Gastonia, North Carolina
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
Oldest girl, Minnie Carpenter, House 53 Loray Mill, Gastonia, N.C. Spinner. Makes fifty cents a day of 10 hours. Works four sides. Younger girl works irregularly. Location: Gastonia, North Carolina.
Girls running warping machines in Loray mill, Gastonia, N.C. Many boys and girls much younger. Boss carefully avoided them, and when I tried to get a photo which would include a mite of a boy working at a machine, he was quickly swept out of range. "He isn't working here, just came in to help a little." Location: Gastonia, North Carolina
Summary
Title from NCLC caption card.
Attribution to Hine based on provenance.
In album: Mills.
Hine no. 246.
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.
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