November 1910. Birmingham, Ala. Workers in the Avondale Mills in Jefferson County. (The Avondale Mills in St. Clair County burned today in Pell City.) Smallest boy is John Tidwell. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
Submitted by Lord-Velveeta on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:06am.
I have to admit, it gets me every time I see kids in old pics working with no shoes on... I can't imagine having to work in a mill without any protection on my feet.
Submitted by Dystopos on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 6:14pm.
The mill that burned today was not the one visited by Hine in 1910. Hine photographed workers at the mill in Avondale, a formerly independent town in Jefferson County, Alabama that was annexed into Birmingham in January of that same year. That mill, seen here at the Birmingham Public Library's digital collections, has long been demolished.
The mill which burned today was located in Pell City in neighboring St. Clair County. It was in the process of being dismantled by a salvage company when cotton dust in the ductwork caught fire.
[Well gosh. I'll fix the captions. Thanks for the information. - Dave]
