Similar
Joseph Dryjowicz, 11 Joy St., (in shirt sleeves). Has been bandboy for 7 months in #8 mill. Group of workers. Location: Ludlow, Massachusetts
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). 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, 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). Lindale, Georgia
Groups of workers in Clayton (N.C.) Cotton Mills. Every one went in to work when whistle blew, and I saw most of them at work during the morning when I went through. Mr. W.H. Swift talked with a boy recently who said he was ten years old and works in the Clayton Cotton Mill, also that others the same age worked. Here they are. I couldn't get the youngest girls in the photos. Clayton is but a short ride from the State Capitol. (The Superintendent watched the photographing without comment.) Location: Clayton, North Carolina.
Noon-hour at Riverside Cotton Mills, Danville, Virginia All are workers. The Supt. who posed them, said, "Be sure not to get any little dinner-toters in the photo. We have none working under fourteen." I did see some but not many. Location: Danville, Virginia.
The very smallest boy is Henry Fournier, 261 Jefferson Ave., Castle Hill, has worked 2 months in #2 Spinning Room. The next in size is Adelard Gagnon, 32 Perkins St., works in Spinning Room. Next in size (front row) is Adelard Dion i.e. Dionne, 1 Palmer St., works in #1Spinning Room. Smallest in back row is Albert Valbert, 14 Park St. Location: Salem, Massachusetts
Group of workers in Avondale Mills. Smallest boy is John Tidwell, been doffing 3 months. Boy next to him is Ragin Bryant been doffing here for five years. Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Groups of workers in Clayton (N.C.) Cotton Mills. Every one went in to work when the whistle blew, and I saw most of them at work during the morning when I went through. Mr. W.H. Swift talked with a boy recently who said he was ten years old and works in the Clayton Cotton Mill, also that others the same age worked. Here they are. I couldn't get the youngest girls in the photos. Clayton is but a short ride from the State Capitol. (The Superintendent watched the photographing without comment.) Location: Clayton, North Carolina.
Groups of workers in Clayton (N.C.) Cotton Mills. Every one went in to work when the whistle blew, and I saw most of them at work during the morning when I went through. Mr. W.H. Swift talked with a boy recently who said he was ten years old and works in the Clayton Cotton Mill, also that others the same age worked. Here they are. I couldn't get the youngest girls in the photos. Clayton is but a short ride from the State Capitol. (The Superintendent watched the photographing without comment.) Location: Clayton, North Carolina
Related
Noon. Group of Doffers and sweepers in Cabarrus Mill, Concord, N.C. These are not all that were working here. Location: Concord, North Carolina.
Noon. Group of doffers and sweepers in Cabarrus Mill, Concord, N.C. These are not all that were working here. Location: Concord, North Carolina
Noon. Group of doffers and sweepers in Cabarrus Mill, Concord, N.C. These are not all that were working here. Location: Concord, North Carolina.
Noon. Group of doffers and sweepers in Cabarrus Mill, Concord, N.C. These are not all that were working here. Location: Concord, North Carolina
Noon. Group of doffers and sweepers in Cabarrus Mill, Concord, N.C. These are not all that were working here. Location: Concord, North Carolina.
A few of the young boys working in the Cannon Mill, Concord, N.C., but only a few of them and not the smallest. Location: Concord, North Carolina
A few of the young boys working in the Cannon Mill, Concord, N.C., but only a few of them and not the smallest. Location: Concord, North Carolina.
A few of the young boys working in the Cannon Mills, Concord, N.C., but only a few of them and not the smallest. Location: Concord, North Carolina
A few of the young boys working in the Cannon Mill, Concord, N.C., but only a few of them and not the smallest. Location: Concord, North Carolina
Noon. Group of Doffers and sweepers in Cabarrus Mill, Concord, N.C. These are not all that were working here. Location: Concord, North Carolina
Summary
Title from NCLC caption card.
Attribution to Hine based on provenance.
In album: Mills.
Hine no. 3063.
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.