1-00 a.m. but young pin boys are working, April 1910
9-year-old Dannie whistles a doulful strain..., April 1912
A "back-roping boy" ... in a New England mill, May 1909
A 7-year-old newsboy..., April 1912
A 10-year-old boy topping beets, October 1915
A 13-year-old Italian boy at his job after school hours, 1913
A 15-year-old girl ... bottling hair tonic, January 1930
A bed-time scene in an east side tenement, February, 1911
A case of truancy, 1913
A common case of team work, March 1909
A doffer boy January, 1909
A fifteen-year-old boy operating a dangerous boring machine, September 1913
A four-year-old child helping her family pick up potatoes, 1931
A group of news boys starting out in a snowstorm..., 1906
A group of the youngest breaker boys..., January 1911
A little cotton mill spinner, December 1908
A small girl bringing homework to her tenement home, 1912
A telegraph messenger boyworking at 10 p.m., August 1908
A twelve-year-old farmer seriously injured while at work, August 1915
A twelve-year-old Italian boy...in a job printing shop, 1913
A young boy making ice cream cones..., 1912
A young boy starting out for the factory..., 1920
Adolescent girl spinner in a cotton mill (1900-1937)
Against the law in New York City, but who cares July 1910
An alert young newsboy seeking a customer, 1912
An anaemic little spinner in a New England cotton mill, August 1910
An eight-year-old boy pulling beets, Oct. 1915
Boy braking on motor train in coal mine..., September 1908
Boys cutting fish in a sardine cannery, August 1911
Boys working in a cigar factory (1900-1937)
Breaker boys working in a Pennsy. mine, Jan., 1911
Carrying-in boy in a glass works (1900-1937)
Charlie who is 12-years-old..., November 1913
Child labor in Maryland oyster cannery (1900-1937)
Child labor in Maryland oyster cannery (1900-1937) 2
Child labor in Southern cotton mill (1900-1937)
Edith, a five-year-old cotton picker, September 1913
Eunice has been working in a cotton mill for five years, January 1909
Four-year-old Mary shucks two pots of oysters a day, March 1911
Francis -----, 5 year old...sells regularly..., May, 1910
Frank, 14 years ... with their parents... making artificial flowers, January 1908
Freddie, an "independent merchant"... May 1915
Girls sell newspapers too, May 1910
Glass blower and mold boy, October 1908
Helpers in a Georgian cotton mill (1900-1937)
In the cotton fields..., September 1913
In vegetable canneries the young worker is one of the chief assets (1900-1937)
Jennie is 51 inches tall..., December 1908
Katie Kuritzko, a 7-year-old oyster shucker, March 1911
Little Lottie, a regular oyster shucker..., February 1911
Mrs. Mary Rena is shelling nuts, December 1911
Nannie, a young "looper" in a hosiery mill (1900-1937)
Newsboys and bootblacks shooting craps, 1912
One of the human products of cotton, November 1910
One of the many young newsboys selling late at night..., November 1912
People call him a "little shaver," August 1908
Pennsylvania coal breakers (1900-1937)
Raveler and looper in a Tenn. hosiery mill, Dec., 1910.
Sadie Pfeifer, 48 inches tall..., November 1908
Salvin, 5-year-old, carries two pecks of cranberries..., September 1910
Sewing work at home (1900-1937)
Shelling pecans at home (1900-1937)
Spraggin a coal train (1900-1937)
Ten year old spinner in a North Carolina cotton mill (1900-1937)
The father of these children died..., January 1909
The Howell family "stripping tobacco," November 1916
The mill superintendant teaching one of the young spinners, December 1908
The Reiber family...topping beets, October 1915
This 15-year-old "carrying-in" boy at the Lehr Glass Works..., October 1908
This bootblack keeps his mind on his job, July 1910
This child is the only pupil present, five weeks after school opened. . . . Oct. 1915
This four-year-old girl and her brother, seven years old, are working on a cranberry bog, September 1910 (1910)
This little girl is so small she has to stand on a box..., December 1910
This mother, at work in the kitchen of her home puts bristles in tootbrushes (1905-1934)
This ten-year-old girl is cracking nuts with her teeth, December 1911
This young driver has been working ... every day for a year, September 1908
Trapper boy, 15, in W. Va. mine, 1908, Sept. Had trapped for several years, 10 hours a day at 75¢.
Two boys transporting wood scraps (1900-1937)
Willie has been a "nipper" for four months, January 1911
Willy and Ora... worming and topping tobacco, August 1916
Young doffers in a Vermont cotton mill, August 1910
Young oyster shuckers (1900-1937)
…
All images by Lewis Wickes Hine, New York Public Library
Thank you to Robert Loch
Beautiful photos, sad circumstances…
Incredibly moving. We shouldn’t forget that this particular past is still a present reality for millions of children in the developing world. Concerned retronauts who want to help them travel to the 21st century could consider a donation to UNICEF, who fight to improve conditions for children in these cirumstances.
It’s not just in the developing world. I live in the “developed world” (Canada) and I have been working since I was 4 years old (as a delivery girl for catalogues and newspapers in the late 80′s-early 90′s)and as a result I am lop-shouldered. The actual reality is that children everywhere have to work to supplement family income.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/
A lot of people here in the U.S. of A. want this back.
And to think that Republican white males don’t see why we should not repeal the child labour laws,shut down the schools, and go back to the good old days of cheap labour, early death, and more money for the filthy idle rich people of this America, this land of the free, home of the brave, and the place where children are supposed to go to school, play, learn and grow up with a future, not an early death. Shame on those greedy folks who want to return children to the horrors of childhood labour.
Karen,
What “Republican white males” have suggested repealing child labor laws and shutting down schools?
What “Republican white males” have suggested repealing child labor laws and shutting down schools?
—–
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/25/paul-lepage-maine-child-labor-laws_n_853503.html
I found that without even trying.
Nothing in that article is particularly indicting. It basically amounts to giving kids who want to work instead of hang out and play X-Box the freedom to do so.
That was the time… i guess in a developing country there will always be a fase of child labour…
Now we find it to be terrible, then it was quite normal…
I have a good friend who is in his late sixties and grew up in Maine in a poor family of 13. His mother would take the entire family out during the summer months, everyday to dig for clams. He was also forced to labor everyday around the house, all day, everyday, either for his mother or for his father who had laboring work for him to do as well.
He quit school at the ninth grade, said he “gave up” because he could never pay attention anyway as he was constantly tired in school and had a hearing deficit due to untreated chronic ear infections.
The pain this man feels to this very day is extreme. He doesn’t know how to enjoy himself, how to relax and play, is highly sensitive to being “bossed” by others, is resentful and angry nearly all the time. He knows sees children play and always reminisces about how he had to work and toil while his peers played and went to school.
And compared to the children pictured here, his life was ideal.
Child labor is child abuse. Period. David A. : You are an idiot and you can go straight to hell.
[quote]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/25/paul-lepage-maine-child-labor-laws_n_853503.html
I found that without even trying.[/quote]
And if you’d read the article you’d know that it’s not about “repealing child labor laws and shutting down schools.”
Allowing 16-17 year olds to work until 11 PM instead of 10 PM on school nights is hardly bringing back sweatshops.
I think we’ve come pretty far from the days of young children working barefoot in a belt driven mill, and climbing on unguarded machinery. These portraits are a glimpse into a past where Italians, woman, blacks, children (etc.) were not afforded any rights. But… as much as I like to think that civil rights have evolved I’m stuck with the thought that 100 years from now people will be looking at photos of protesters holding signs that read “God hates Fags”.
Although the age and pay scale may have changed from the above photos the work has stayed somewhat the same. We’re still mining, working in factories or serving big businesses that don’t offer competitive wages or even health care. (Just thought I’d jump in on the fun here!)
Beautiful photos.
Everything changes, but it all stays relative. Do I make more money now as a blue collar worker than a person fifty years ago? Of course. Have times changed? As I stated above “We’ve come pretty far”. I’ve even noticed the major historical changes that have improved my safety at work. I have worked in factories, on boats, as a welder, in the field of construction and woodworking for a long time now.
I agree with your thoughts on finding a rewarding profession. However, to assume that all a person has to do in life is work hard to succeed is to assume that everyone starts out on equal playing fields, and that we can strip away all possible variables. I believe success is measured differently; “Did you stay out of jail? Did you stay alive? Now you have a regular job breaking rocks…well done.” We should try not to use our own lives as a model of how others should lead theirs.
Most large companies strive to keep similar management, not laborers. Laborers are now, and have always been replaceable.
I don’t believe I’m necessarily optimistic or pessimistic, and I’m surely not blaming anyone for anything. Nor do I hold ill will toward others views. I merely feel that peoples opinions may differ, which is okay. Understanding others will help us all move forward in a positive manner.
STOP AND THINK?
At first glance we might deplore these photos, we might ‘tut-tut’ at what went on, but, and this is highly important, all these wonderful children [loveable one and all] are indirectly being groomed in family care, love and responsibilty, duty to the community and the value of their own labor and its monetary rewards. By age 11-14 they were maturing adults who possessed values we sorely need today. I would argue that child labor is worth its worth in gold! as an alternative form of education. And a child who went through this without flinching was twice the man or woman he would have been if he/she had not undergone it. Its all well and good talking schools, talking better education but useless if the child wants a job, is worried about lack of money and food, and wants to rush into manhood. I am not advocating child slavery, nor working in mines, but to the use of common-sense methods to encourage children to better themselves in the easiest way possible. The writer was a child worker, 70 hours a week for 4 years. It did him no harm and helped to feed his brothers and sisters.
Hmm so some of these these industries don’t cause harm?
Its easy to get sentimental when shown some photos of cute kids, but remember these children were working full time to provide food for their relatives because the wages for adults were insufficient to cover the cost of living.
Child labour is ideal for the Mine and Factory owners because it ensures a steady supply of workers, with only the exceptional few having the resources to educate themselves out of the cycle of indentured servitude to the boss man.
And now we’ve gone too far the other way.
I’m not saying we should go back to the days of children working in coal mines or sweat shops 12 hours a day, but the youth of today could benefit from learning the value of a hard days work from an early age. We coddle our kids from birth until they graduate high school/college, handing them everything they need. Then when they get out in the real world with no experience what-so-ever and they simply cant handle it.
They would rather camp out for months at some protest rally claiming they’re the 99% (whatever that means because they don’t speak for me) rather than take a menial job for a few years until something better comes along. Wait, let me rephrase that, waiting until something better comes along implies that they are owed something, I should say while they work toward something better.
I grew up doing chores every day. I don’t mean things like take out the garbage or washing the dishes, though I did those too. I mean things like chopping fire wood, plowing a field, mowing an 8 acre lawn with a push mower and 1000 other things I don’t have room to list. Did I grow up to be rich and successful? No, however I grew up with the ability to support myself and raise 5 kids to adulthood in good times and bad without ever needing a government handout. That’s the value of a hard days work my friends.
I suspect the American GOP would see no issue with these pictures. In fact, I think the American GOP would see these pictures as ‘ideals’ to look up too and reach for, for America’s poorest children.
Yes in Canada it’s the Conservative’s wet dream and in the U.S. the Republican equivalent.
Such sad photo’s…makes me want to take the kids to play at the playground after school. Play is so important for kids (and sleep) brain development something these kids so obviously missed out on.
I consider myself liberal and I still think there’s a difference between kids having to work long hard hours to survive and choosing to work a few hours to make a little money for themselves. Long or late night hours and working in dangerous conditions could easily be banned while still allowing a little work time according to age and ability. It also shouldn’t cut in on their school or study time, or replace all their playtime.
The coal mining and dangerous machinery stuff is clearly not right, but I am looking at some of these young newspaper kids and they don’t look miserable at all. They were making money in hard times and they’re glad. But that’s another thing: I also think these pictures give a false impression of what work would be like today. There were no labor laws then, kids were routinely abused in every way, and many of them are clearly hungry and exausted from working 16 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week. It’s simply not a fair nor accurate depiction of “how it is whenever kids work.” I definitely don’t believe in forcing kids to work, or making it so they have to work to survive (which I think is a legit concern to fear from rightwing corporatists). Nevertheless, as someone else said, if they’d rather put in a few hours a week making money for themselves rather than sitting around playing X-Box and getting fat, then I think they should be allowed to do that. There are jobs a 12-year-old can handle and there are jobs a 7-year-old can handle. The older kid could work 3 hours sweeping, and the younger kid could work for an hour doing some little easy job. They get to buy a new game or something for their bicycle, and they start learning early about being responsible with money, before they need the money to live. Whatever you think of children working, though, these pictures are not a fair representation of what it would be like today.
While some of these pics are quite appalling, I think there’s a huge difference between kids working in a coal mine or factory and some kid sitting at his kitchen table shelling nuts or helping to pick vegetables on the family farm. To call that child labor is going overboard. I grew up on a small farm and I often helped my parents out with these type of chores. I also had my first paying job on another local farm at age 13. Before that I would go around to neighbors mowing lawns, raking leaves, chopping firewood, washing cars or anything else they needed to make myself 25 or 50 cents.
I also think the pics of the kids selling newspapers or shining shoes is far from something evil as well. City kids used to jump at the chance to get a job like that so they could earn some extra money, sometimes it was to help their parents out and sometimes it was for money of their own. There is nothing wrong with children learning the benefits of a hard days work, it’s something I think is sorely lacking in today’s youth.
I have to disagree with the “walnut shelling” pictures as being “OK.” This was known, before fair labor laws as “piece work.” The family would be paid per piece of work done. They were not paid much and often the hours were long and children were kept out of school shelling nuts etc for 16 hour days.
Also, the kids selling newspapers was a tragedy. It is NOT today’s equivalent of a kid with a paper route. Most of these children were “Street Children” many were orphans, or had single parents (which virtually guaranteed you would be living well below the poverty line back them)
If you notice, most of these “Newsies” (as these boys were known) are shoe-less, this happened even in the dead of winter, as they made too little money to even buy the basic necessities such as shoes. The same with the shoe shine boys. “Match Girls” and “Flower Girls” were the same types of jobs, but for girl children. These were low pay jobs that KEPT CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL, kept them up very late at night, and often these were the same children sleeping huddled in doorways or alleys until their next shift.
It was a tragedy. Kids “today” are no different than when we were kids, our parents lamented (well, maybe yours, my parents had more liberal views of childhood than to think it was “good” for children to work 12 to 16 hour days) the lack of care kids have for centuries.
At least today, we have compulsory education (something people like Santorum want to take away from us) and have laws preventing children from being used as slave labor. And, yes, those “Newsies” and shoe shine boys, as well as the breakers and girls working in the textile mills were ALL being used as slave labor and NONE of them got an education.
My great grandmother lived in these days, she NEVER learned to read, was broken and old before her time, and it was all due to her needing to work as a child.