Exhibits
Lewis W. Hine Photographs
Lewis Wickes Hine (1874 - 1940) began photographing immigrants at Ellis Island in New York Harbor around 1904, then documented their lives in tenements in New York City. In 1908, he became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), an organization trying to outlaw child labor. For a decade, he took photographs of children working in coal mines, factories, canneries, fields, and mills.
In 1908, he visited the Lancaster Cotton Mill.
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Sweeper and Doffer Boys. |
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A typical Spinner. |
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Spinners and doffers. |
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Wesley Strand (with gun). Has been in mill 1 year. Been sick lately. |
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Group of boys working in Lancaster, S.C. Cotton Mills. |
Hines' photographs eventually led to the passing and enforcement of child labor and safety laws.
Hine went on to work for the Red Cross, was commissioned to document the construction of the Empire State Building, worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority during the Depression, and was photographer for the Works Progress Administration.
But Hine's work did not pay well. In early 1940, he lost his home. A few months later, at the age of 66, he died in poverty in New York City.
These photographs, and others, are available online
at the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
National Child Labor Committee Collection.