Children at Work, United States, by Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874 – 1940

Rhodes Mfg. Co., Lincolnton, N.C. Spinner. A moments glimpse of the outer world. Said she was 10 years old. Been working over a year. Location: Lincolnton, North Carolina.
 

Interior of tobacco shed, Hawthorn Farm. Girls in foreground are 8, 9, and 10 years old. The 10 yr. old makes 50 cents a day. 12 workers on this farm are 8 to 14 years old, and about 15 are over 15 yrs. Location: Hazardville, Connecticut.
 

Brown McDowell 12 year old usher in Princess Theatre. Works from 10 A.M. tp 10 P.M. Can barely read; has reached the second grade in school only. Investigator reports little actual need for earnings. Location: Birmingham, Alabama.
 

Manuel, the young shrimp-picker, five years old, and a mountain of child-labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year. Understands not a word of English. Dunbar, Lopez, Dukate Company. Location: Biloxi, Mississippi.
 

Eagle and Phoenix Mill. "Dinner-toters" waiting for the gate to open. Location: Columbus, Georgia
 

Young Cigarmakers in Englahardt & Co., Tampa, Fla.
 

2 newsgirls. Location: Wilmington, Delaware
 

Pin boys in Les Miserables Alleys. Location: Lowell, Massachusetts
 

Boys picking over garbage on "the Dumps." Boston. See 906-907. Location: Boston, Massachusetts.
 

Newsie, "flipping cars". Location: Boston, Massachusetts
 

Little Fannie, 7 years old, 48 inches high, helps sister in Elk Mills. Her sister (in photo) said, "Yes, she he'ps me right smart. Not all day but all she can. Yes, she started with me at six this mornin'.&quot Location: Fayetteville, Tennessee
 

Four-year-old Mary, who shucks two pots of oysters a day at Dunbar. Tends the baby when not working. Location: Dunbar, Louisiana
 

Charlie Foster has a steady job in the Merrimack Mills. School Record says he is now ten years old. His father told me that he could not read, and still he is putting him into the mill. See Hine report. Location: Huntsville, Alabama
 

Messenger boy working for Mackay Telegraph Company. Said fifteen years old. Exposed to Red Light dangers. Location: Waco, Texas
 

Tenjeta Calone, Philadelphia, 10 years old. Been picking cranberries 4 years. White's Bog, Browns Mills, N.J.
 

Lunch Time, Economy Glass Works, Morgantown, W. Va. Plenty more like this, inside. Location: Morgantown, West Virginia.
 

A Little "Shaver," Indianapolis Newsboy, 41 inches high. Said he was 6 years old. Aug., 1908. Wit., E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
 

Glass works. Midnight. Location: Indiana
 

Marie Costa, Basket Seller, 605 Elm St., Sixth St. Market, Cincinnati. 9 P.M. Had been there since 10 A.M. Sister and friend help her. Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
 

Vance, a Trapper Boy, 15 years old. Has trapped for several years in a West Va. Coal mine. $.75 a day for 10 hours work. All he does is to open and shut this door: most of the time he sits here idle, waiting for the cars to come.
 

Bootblacks in and around City Hall Park, New York City - July 25, 1924. Location: New York, New York
 

5:00 A.M. Sunday May 8th, 1910. Starting out with papers from McIntyres Branch. Chestnut & 16th Sts. Location: St. Louis, Missouri.
 

Bundle boy. Location: St. Louis, Missouri.
 

Amos is 6 and Horace 4 years old. Their father, John Neal is a renter and raises tobacco. He said (and the owner of the land confirmed it) that both these boys work day after day from "sun-up to sun-down" Location: Warren County--Albaton, Kentucky
 

Jewel and Harold Walker, 6 and 5 years old, pick 20 to 25 pounds of cotton a day. Location: Comanche County, Oklahoma
 

Morris Levine, 212 Park Street. 11 years old and sells papers every day--been selling five years. Makes 50 cents Sundays and 30 cents other days. Location: Burlington, Vermont
 

[The 8 and 10 yr. old children here are working beets on a farm near Sterling, Colo, from 5:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. on rush days. Father said, "We have to get done."]. Location: Sterling vicinity, Colorado
 

Freddie Kafer, a very immature little newsie selling Saturday Evening Posts and newspapers at the entrance to the State Capitol, Sacramento, California
 

Part of a group of itinerant cotton pickers leaving a farm at which they had finished picking a bale and a half a day. Location: McKinney, Texas
 

Josie, six year old, Bertha, six years old, Sophie, 10 years old, all shuck regularly. Maggioni Canning Co. Location: Port Royal, South Carolina
 

Fruit Venders, Indianapolis Market, aug., 1908. Wit., E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana.
 

This little girl like many others in this state is so small she has to stand on a box to reach her machine. Location: Loudon, Tennessee
 

These poignant photographic prints are attributed to photographer Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874 – 1940, who documented the plight of working children in the United States in the early 1900s. These photographs are from the records of the National Child Labor Committee (U.S.) 2004667950, in the archives of The Library of Congress, United States.

For more information about any photograph, please hover over or click on it. ~ Laura

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by Laura Posted on July 26, 2013
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