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.

October 1911. Vicinity of Lowell and South Framingham, Mass. Merrimac Mill boys. Front row: Smallest, Robert Magee, 270 Suffolk Street; John Neary, 211 Lakeview Avenue; Michael Keefe, 32 Marion Street. Back row: Edward Foster, 40 Fulton Street; John Risheck, 391 Adams Street; Cornelius Hurley, 68 Adams Street, No. 1 mill room. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine.
This is one of many of the Lewis Wickes Hine photos of children looking very old. Part of it is physical, from not getting enough sleep, adequate nutrition, warmth, etc. It is also party due to the fact that these children have all ready, figuratively, felt the weight of the world on their shoulders. If only we could hit a happy medium between this and many children, today, who think they are picked on if they have to keep using the expensive cell phone they got six months ago, rather than getting the latest upgrade.
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