Lewis W ickes Hine

Lewis Wickes HineDocumented life in

the early 20th century factories and sweatshops

By: Alicia Lewis

“Hine never tried hard for a single effect; he was usually not pictorially dramatic and many of his photographs appeared flat - not shocking enough for his contemporaries. The people in the photographs communicate directly to us as if they were still alive. They spill out of their historic reality to become part of our present. We see them and think we are about to know them.”

-Judith mara Gutman

Life: 1874-19401901: taught at the Ethical Culture School in

New York City, using photographs as educational tools.

1908: The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) hired him to document children in factories, mills, and other industries.

“Through his photographs he sought to alert the public to the extent of child labor in America, and the degree to which it denied these children their childhood, health, and education.”

Hine’s Life

The overseer said apologetically, "She just happened in." She was working steadily. The mills seem full of youngsters who "just happened in" or "are helping sister." Newberry, S.C.

Jo Bodeon, a back-roper in the mule room at Chace Cotton Mill. Burlington, Vt.

My Interpretation…

Michael McNelis, age 8, a newsboy. This boy has just recovered from his second attack of pneumonia. Was found selling papers in a big rain storm. Philadelphia, Pa

15-year-old sweeper in the spinning and spooling room of Berkshire Cotton Mills. Adams, Massachusetts. July 10, 1916

My Interpretation…

A general view of spinning room, Cornell Mill. Fall River, Mass.

Eleven-year-old bakery worker Glenn Dungey. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. April 1917.

My Interpretation…

My Interpretation…

“Perhaps you are weary of child labor pictures. Well, so are the rest of us, but we propose to make you and the whole country so sick and tired of the whole business that when the time for action comes, child labor pictures will be records of the past.”

--Lewis Hine

The End

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRhine.htm

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/hine.htm http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/

childlabor/ http://www.vahistorical.org/exhibits/

hine_crusade.htm

Bibliography