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Bob Burton, Gastonia, North Carolina. 15 years old. A typical adolescent, overgrown, thin, anemic. Been in mill for 8 years. Doffing still in Ozark Mills. November 1908. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
A doffer in a textile mill was a person who took off a full bobbin holding yarn & replaced it with an empty bobbin. Very repetitive job.
From a distance he looks much older then 15. Of course 8 years in a mill might do that to you...
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