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Gruesome Pictures From The 1900s Showing The Struggles Of Working Children Before Child Labor Was Abolished
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In 1908 Lewis Hine picked up his camera and became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. It was a start of a long decade, as Lewis traveled across the country, documenting child labor, getting constant threats from factory owners as the immorality of employment laws was supposed to be kept away from the public's eye. However, Hine persisted, adopting many different disguises (such as a fire inspector or a bible salesman) to snap these old photos of the labor laws violations and interview the children working at factories or in the streets.
Lewis Hine used his camera as a tool for social commentary and reform, focusing on the dangerous and appalling conditions that the children had to work in. Risking his own safety, Hine snapped thousands of photographs with one goal – change child labor laws terminally. And of course, spreading the vintage photos, in the form of pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines paid off as the federal government eventually had to put out stricter labor laws. Scroll down below to see a selection of Hine's vintage photography and don't forget to tell us what you think.
More info: National Child Labor Committee Collection
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Accident To Young Mill Worker. Giles Edmund Newsom. While Working In Sanders Spinning Mille, A Piece Of The Machine Fell On To His Foot Mashing His Toe. This Caused Him To Fall On To A Spinning Machine And His Hand Went Into Unprotected Gearing, Crushing And Tearing Out Two Fingers. He Told The Attorney He Was 11 Years Old When It Happened. Location: Bessemer City, North Carolina
7-Year Old Rosie. Regular Oyster Shucker. Her Second Year At It. Illiterate. Works All Day. Shucks Only A Few Pots A Day. Varn & Platt Canning Co. Location: Bluffton, South Carolina
7 Year Old Ferris. Tiny Newsie Who Did Not Know Enough To Make Change For Investigator. There Are Still Too Many Of These Little Ones In The Larger Cities. Location: Mobile, Alabama
Newsboy Asleep On Stairs With Papers. Location: Jersey City, New Jersey
Callie Campbell, 11 Years Old, Picks 75 To 125 Pounds Of Cotton A Day, And Totes 50 Pounds Of It When Sack Gets Full. "No, I Don't Like It Very Much." Location: Potawotamie County, Oklahoma
Four-Year-Old Mary, Who Shucks Two Pots Of Oysters A Day At Dunbar. Tends The Baby When Not Working. Location: Dunbar, Louisiana
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. Location: West Virginia
I've seen this picture before, and I remember that these boys worked in total darkness too.
Breaker Boys In #9 Breaker, Hughestown Borough, Pa. Coal Co. Smallest Boy Is Angelo Ross. Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania
Rose Biodo, 1216 Annan St., Philadelphia. 10 Years Old. Working 3 Summers. Minds Baby And Carries Berries, Two Pecks At A Time. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey
Arnao Family, Whole Family Works. Jo Is 3 Years Old. Boy Is 6 Years Old, Girl Is 9 Years Old. May 28th 1910, Before School Closed. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey
People say nowadays children grow up to quickly, to be honest, I think these children and the old days grew up way too quickly! At 9 I was just going to school in grade 3 or something learning about how to count back in 3s and playing with my toys not this which is heart breaking this boy should be out playing with his toys, going out with friends it is very sad
Frank P......., Whose Legs Were Cut Off By A Motor Car In A Coal Mine In West Virginia When He Was 14 Years 10 Months Of Age. Location: Monongah, West Virginia
Some Boys Were So Small They Had To Climb Up On The Spinning Frame To Mend The Broken Threads And Put Back The Empty Bobbins. Location: Macon, Georgia
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
She should be in school. I hope there was a better future for her--that she escaped this poverty, somehow.
5-Year Old Harold Walker. Location: Comanche County--[geronimo], Oklahoma
![5-Year Old Harold Walker. Location: Comanche County--[geronimo], Oklahoma](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/national-child-labor-committee-collection-usa-5b9ba5ad8c267__880.jpg "5-Year Old Harold Walker. Location: Comanche County--[geronimo], Oklahoma")
Out in southwestern Oklahoma, some of the dryest and hottest areas of the country that is not a desert.
Maud Daly, Five Years Old. Grade Daly, Three Years Old. Each Picks About One Pot Of Shrimp A Day For The Peerless Oyster Co. Location: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Tipple Boy, Turkey Knob Mine, Macdonald, W. Va. Witness E.n. Clopper. Location: Macdonald, West Virginia
Noon Hour In The Ewen Breaker, Pennsylvania Coal Co. Location: South Pittston, Pennsylvania
Some Of Newark's Small Newsboys. Afternoon. Location: Newark, New Jersey
ok yeah the other ones are horrible but these guys seem well cared for
Photo Of Boys Working In Arcade Bowling Alley, Trenton, N.j. Photo Taken Late At Night. The Boys Work Until Midnight And Later. Location: Trenton, New Jersey
Eight-Year-Old, Jennie Camillo, Lives In West Maniyunk, Pa. For This Summer She Has Picked Cranberries. Location: Pemberton, New Jersey
A Little Spinner In Globe Cotton Mill. Augusta, Ga. The Overseer Admitted She Was Regularly Employed. Location: Augusta, Georgia
"Basket ! Five Cents Each!" Antoinette Siminger, 12 Years Old, 4219 Glenway Ave., Price Hill, Sixth St., Market, Cincinnati. 10 P.m. Had Been Selling Since Morning. Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Two Of The Tiny Workers, A Raveler And A Looper In Loudon Hosiery Mills. Location: Loudon, Tennessee
10 Yr. Old Picker On Gildersleeve Tobacco Farm. Location: Gildersleeve, Connecticut
The practice of employing children to process tobacco continued into the 1970's in Connecticut. For me and other teenagers, working in agriculture was one of the few summer jobs we could get. We could be hired from 14 and up but couldn't operate machinery until we were 18, unless we were family members. Family members worked at even younger ages.
Scene In Canning Factory Showing A 7-Year Old Girl Who Shucks 3 Pots Of Oysters A Day, And Works Regularly, And Her 6-Year Old Brother Who Helps Some. Mostly Negro Workers. The Boss Said "We Keep Only Enough Whites So We Can Control The Negroes And Keep Them Agoing." Location: Bluffton, South Carolina
Young Driver In Mine: Had Been Driving One Year. (7 A.m. To 5:30 P.m. Daily) Brown Mine, Brown , W. Va. Location: Brown, West Virginia
The hats are torch lights. Necessary to see a couple of feet in front of you whilst in the pitch-black mines. Just as we have hats with reflectors and flashlights on them, these workers had their own "technology."
Drivers In A Coal Mine Co. Plenty Boys Driving And On Tipple. No Trappers Used, As Mine Is Ventilated By Another System. Location: West Virginia
Greel's Shoe-Shining Parlor, Indianapolis, Ind. Said He Was 15 Years Old. Works Some Nights Until 11. Taken At 10 P.m. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
My father in law was shining shoes around 12 years old, in the late 50s...
Lunch Time, Economy Glass Works, Morgantown, W. Va. Plenty More Like This, Inside. Location: Morgantown, West Virginia
One Of The Spinners In Whitnel Cotton Mfg. Co. N.c. She Was 51 Inches High. Had Been In Mill 1 Year. Some At Night. Runs 4 Sides, 48 Cents A Day. When Asked How Old, She Hesitated, Then Said "I Don't Remember." Then Confidentially, "I'm Not Old Enough To Work, But I Do Just The Same." Location: Whitnel, North Carolina
Sometimes height was the only way to assess the subects potential age. As seen, many had no idea how old they were or were accustomed to denying their youth in order to continue working to support families dependent on them.
Louis Birch, Newsboy, 12 Years Of Age. Just Started Selling. Made 10 Cents One Day. Father Dead. While Not Under Any Compulsion To Sell Papers, Louis, Of His Own Accord, Took It Up In Order To Help Support His Widowed Mother. Location: Wilmington, Delaware
I wonder if allot of the children from these pictures also took the job to help the family.?
"Radishes! Penny A Bunch!" Sixth St. Market, Cincinnati. 10 P.m. Saturday. Boys And Girls Sell All Day, And Until 11 P.m. Aug.22, 1908. Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
I would buy them all even though I am not a fan of them, then I would give her a lot more money... Sweet lassie
11:00 A. M . Monday, May 9th, 1910. Newsies At Skeeter's Branch, Jefferson Near Franklin. They Were All Smoking. Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Adults have kids cigarettes to cope with being hungry, so they could work all day and everyone thought it was fine. My dad was given cigarettes by his dad at 8 years old to work their cattle ranch
Little Fannie, 7 Years Old, 48 Inches High, Helps Sister In Elk Mills. Location: Fayetteville, Tennessee
A Greaser In A Coal Mine. See 1835. Location: Bessie Mine, Alabama
Sonny And Pete Newsboys. One Is Six Years Old. They Began At 6:00 A.m. Location: San Antonio, Texas
Widow & Boy Rolling Papers For Cigarettes In A Dirty N.y. Tenement. Location: New York, New York
Calling it a "dirty" tenement seems like an undeserved indictment of this poor widder-woman with three mouths to feed. I see poor, but I don't necessarily see dirty.
Working Girls Learning Dressmaking In The Free Evening School. Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Bertha, One Of The Six-Year Old Shuckers. Began Work At 4 A.m. Maggioni Canning Co. Location: Port Royal, South Carolina
"Fire- Fire - I Want To Make The Fire." An Italian Boy On Salem Street Saturday Morning, Offering To Make Fires For Jewish People. Location: Boston, Massachusetts
This was common. Jewish people are not allowed to do certain things on the Sabbath, so often they would have a gentile to assist them in starting fires, taking them out.... The gentiles that helped were paid and treated well though.
A Typical Birmingham Messenger. Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Maple Mills, Dillon, S.c. Soarbar Seris, Has Worked Off And On In The Mill For 5 Years. Winds. Gets 70 Cents And Up. "Recon I'm About 14." Didn't Look It. Has Worked More Nights Than Day Time. Location: Dillon, South Carolina
a man in my dad's small town had been left in New York City by his parents when they returned to Poland. He worked the elevator in an apartment building, sleeping in the elevator or under the stairs. He eventually walked to Canada, by himself.
One Of The Small Boys In J. S. Farrand P[ac]king Co. And A Heavy Load. J. W. Magruder, Witness. Location: Baltimore, Maryland
![One Of The Small Boys In J. S. Farrand P[ac]king Co. And A Heavy Load. J. W. Magruder, Witness. Location: Baltimore, Maryland](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/national-child-labor-committee-collection-usa-5b9b7bbe4e8a0__880.jpg "One Of The Small Boys In J. S. Farrand P[ac]king Co. And A Heavy Load. J. W. Magruder, Witness. Location: Baltimore, Maryland")
Joe is bored, joe has no friends, this has turned joe into someone who needs attention
Francis Lance 5 Years Old, 41 Inches High. Sells Regularly On Grand Avenue. Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Katie Kuritzko, 7-Year-Old Oyster Shucker. Has Mumps Now. Her 8-Year-Old Brother Also Shucks. Location: Dunbar, Louisiana
This has got to be one of the most heart wrenching of all of these photographs. There is absolutely nothing redeemable in her face, her dress, her situation in it's entirety. Only sadness....
One Of The Young Spinners In The Quidwick Co. Mill. Anthony, R. I. (A Polish Boy Willie) Who Was Taking His Noon Rest In A Doffer-Box. Location: Anthony, Rhode Island
Ethel Shumate. Has Been Rolling Cigarettes In Danville (Va.) Factory For Six Months. Said She Was Thirteen Years Old, But It Is Doubtful. Location: Danville, Virginia
A Few Of The Messengers Western Union, Hartford, Conn. They Are On Duty, Alternate Nights, Until 10 P.m. Location: Hartford, Connecticut
Daisy Langford, 8 Yrs. Old Works In Ross' Canneries. She Helps At The Capping Machine, But Is Not Able To "Keep Up." She Places Caps On The Cans At The Rate Of About 40 Per Minute Working Full Time. Location: Seaford, Delaware
6 Yr. Old Earle Holt (Or Hope), 712 H St., S.w., Washington, D.c., Sells Papers For A Neighbor Boy. When I Met Him, Within An Hour He Had Forgotten That I Had Photographed Him, But He Didn't Forget To Shortchange Me When I Bought The Paper. Location: Washington (D.c.)
Two Of The Boys On Night Shift In The More-Jonas Glass Co., Bridgeton, N.j. Location: Bridgeton, New Jersey
boy in the left has a toned arms from working contrary to his young face.
Fruit Vendors, Indianapolis Market, Aug., 1908. Wit., E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Elsie Shaw, A 6 Year Old Cartoner During The Summer. [her Father] Asked Me To Take Some Photos Of Her, As He Has Her Do A Singing Act In Vaudeville In The Winter, "And She's Old Enough Now To Go Through The Audience And Sell Her Own Photos." Location: Eastport, Maine
![Elsie Shaw, A 6 Year Old Cartoner During The Summer. [her Father] Asked Me To Take Some Photos Of Her, As He Has Her Do A Singing Act In Vaudeville In The Winter, "And She's Old Enough Now To Go Through The Audience And Sell Her Own Photos." Location: Eastport, Maine](https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/national-child-labor-committee-collection-usa-5b9f6667dec5a__880.jpg "Elsie Shaw, A 6 Year Old Cartoner During The Summer. [her Father] Asked Me To Take Some Photos Of Her, As He Has Her Do A Singing Act In Vaudeville In The Winter, \"And She's Old Enough Now To Go Through The Audience And Sell Her Own Photos.\" Location: Eastport, Maine")