Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.

April 1911. Meridian, Mississippi. "Noon hour at Priscilla Knitting Mills. Small boys who work here." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
I feel the same way at lunch time every day.
Blacktop? Gravel?
Got to take pretty tough feet to run on that if it is gravel.
Come to think of it, blacktop, too. With the sun beating down around noon.
It's amazing that so many boys, barely in their teens would go about daily life without shoes.
Looks more like recess to me!
Kids will be kids....
Today's Top 5