http://www.geh.org/ar/strip11/htmlsrc/hine_sld00001.html

The website has about a thousand pictures by Hine that are not about child labor.

In Europe it was Meccano. The parts were green or red.

"I wish my five year old nephew had something that constructive to look forward to"

Erector Sets are still exported by Meccano/Nikko Group to North America.

He was also the official photographer during the construction of the Empire State Building in the early 1930's.

I guess I've always thought about Hine in terms of the child labor photos and had no idea he had a later career, kind of dumb of me now that I think about it. What did he do later?

During the Depression he worked for the Red Cross photographing drought relief in the South, and for the Tennessee Valley Authority documenting life in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. He also served as chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration's National Research Project.

[Wikipedia link. - Dave]

In Canada we had Meccano instead of Erector. Much the same principle but older and British (and thus favoured under the tariff structure when I was growing up). I wish my five year old nephew had something that constructive to look forward to instead of the pre-packaged, pre-imagined stuff that even Lego has become.

Amazing but that looks almost exactly like the Erector set I had in the late 50s. Making a crane/derrick was very fun.

is what he seems to be playing with.