Lewis hine photography kids watermelon

They argued that long hours of work deprived children of the opportunity of an education to prepare themselves for a better future. Instead, child labor condemmed them to a future of illiteracy, poverty, and continuing misery. In a group of progressive reformers founded the National Child Labor Committee, an organization whose goal was the abolition of child labor.

The organization received a charter from Congress in It hired teams of investigators to gather evidence of children working in harsh conditions and then organized exhibitions with photographs and statistics to dramatize the plight of these children. Lewis Hine, a New York City schoolteacher and photographer, believed that a picture could tell a powerful story.

He felt so strongly about the abuse of children as workers that he quit his. Hine traveled around the country photographing the working conditions of children in all types of industries. He photographed children in coal mines, in meatpacking houses, in textile mills, and in canneries. He took pictures of children working in the streets as shoe shiners, newsboys, and hawkers.

In many instances he tricked his way into factories to take the pictures that factory managers did not want the public to see. He was careful to document every photograph with precise facts and figures. To obtain captions for his pictures, he interviewed the children on some pretext and then scribbled his notes with his hand hidden inside his pocket.

Hine believed that if people could see for themselves the abuses and injustice of child labor, they would demand laws to end those evils. From untilLewis Hine took over 5, photographs of American child laborers. His compelling pictures helped to persuade legislators and the general public to support laws prohibiting child labor. All the photos, with Mr.

SinceI have been identifying the children, tracking down and interviewing living descendants, and writing stories about how the lives of these children turned out. You can see all those stories on this website. If this is your first visit, please see About Lewis Hine Project first just click photo at left. Each photo below is a link. All of the stories were printed from my website.

Lewis hine photography kids watermelon: Boy making Melon Baskets, A Basket

The Library will continue to add new stories as they become available. Links and resources about Lewis Hine and child labor. I lived with her as a little girl, and she treated me like I was a precious treasure, like the doll-baby she never had. She was tender and kind and spoiled me with her attention and love, and had a tremendous influence on the mother I became myself.

She was a true-life American girl and a heroine in my eyes. Thank you for giving that little girl — my great-grandmother — the dignity she deserved. I carry her memory in my DNA. It was so cool to see their reactions when I told them that the little girl at the window was my great-grandmother. They were blown away, and I think all of them realized that yes, history can be really cool.

Evansville, Indiana. Right - Willie, a Polish boy, taking his noon rest in a doffer box at the Quidwick Co. Anthony, Rhode Island. Left - Day scene. Wheaton Glass Works. Boy is Howard Lee. His mother showed me the family record in Bible which gave his birth as July 15, Millville, New Jersey. Mid - A boy making melon baskets in a basket factory. Right - Rob Kidd, one of the young workers in a glass factory.

Alexandria, Virginia. Seafood Workers. Left - Oyster shuckers working in a canning factory.

Lewis hine photography kids watermelon: Boy making Melon Baskets, A

All but the very smallest babies work. Began work at a. The little girl in the center was working. Her mother said she is "a real help to me. Mid - Shrimp pickers, including little 8-year-old Max on the right. Biloxi, Mississippi. Right - Johnnie, a 9-year-old oyster shucker. Man with pipe behind him is a Padrone who has brought these people from Baltimore for four years.

He is the boss of the shucking shed. Dunbar, Louisiana. Left - Manuel the young shrimp picker, age 5, and a mountain of child labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year. Understands not a word of English.

Lewis hine photography kids watermelon: Sixty-nine extraordinary photographs of

Mid - Cutting fish in a sardine cannery. Large sharp knives are used with a cutting and sometimes chopping motion. The slippery floors and benches and careless bumping into each other increase the liability of accidents. Eastport, Maine. Right - Hiram Pulk, age 9, working in a canning company. They pay about 5 cents a box," he said. Field and Farm Work.

Left - Camille Carmo, age 7, and Justine, age 9. The older girl picks about 4 pails a day. Rochester, Massachusetts. Mid - Three boys, one of 13 yrs. The "first picking" necessitates a sitting posture. Buckland, Connecticut. Right - Six-year-old Warren Frakes. Mother said he picked 41 pounds yesterday "An I don't make him pick; he picked some last year.

Comanche County, Oklahoma. Left - Twelve-year-old Lahnert boy topping beets. The father, mother, and two boys 9 and 12 yrs. Begin at 6 a. Fort Collins, Colorado. Mid - Eight-year-old Jack driving a horse rake. A small boy has difficulty keeping his seat on rough ground and this work is more or less dangerous. Western Massachusetts. Right - Norris Luvitt.

Been picking 3 years in berry fields near Baltimore. Little Salesmen. Left - After 9 p. His father said, "He is the youngest demonstrator in America. Has been doing it for several years from San Francisco to New York.

Lewis hine photography kids watermelon: Hine worked as an investigative photographer

We stay a month or six weeks in a place. He works at it off and on. Mid - Joseph Severio, peanut vender, age 11 [seen with photographer Hine]. But at the turn of the century, the number of working kids soared. Between and18 percent of children ages 10 to 15 were employed. In his work for the National Child Labor Committee, Hine journeyed to farms and mills in the industrializing South and the streets and factories of the Northeast.

He used a Graflex camera with 5-byinch glass plate negatives and employed flash powder for nighttime and interior shots, hauling upwards of 50 pounds of equipment on his slight frame. To gain entry into factories and other facilities, Hine sometimes disguised himself as a Bible, postcard or insurance salesman. He documented their working lives, such as their typical hours and any injuries or ailments they incurred as a result of their labor.

The camera serves as an eyewitness to a societal ill, a problem that needs a solution. Hine portrayed his subjects in a direct manner, typically frontally and looking straight into the camera, against the backdrop of the very factories, farmland or cities where they worked.