MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
Home

Search Shorpy

SEARCH TIP: Click the tags above a photo to find more of same:
Mandatory field.

Search results -- 30 results per page

A Boy's Life: 1924
Circa 1924. "Boy with mechanical toy" by Lewis Wickes Hine, taken after his epic, decade-long assignment for the National Child Labor ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 04/08/2008 - 12:06pm -

Circa 1924. "Boy with mechanical toy" by Lewis Wickes Hine, taken after his epic, decade-long assignment for the National Child Labor Committee. View full size. Erector set is what he seems to be playing with. Erector setAmazing but that looks almost exactly like the Erector set I had in the late 50s. Making a crane/derrick was very fun. In CanadaIn 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. Lewis HineHe was also the official photographer during the construction of the Empire State Building in the early 1930's. Erector Sets"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. Hine's later yearsI 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] MeccanoIn Europe it was Meccano. The parts were green or red. Lewis Hine Laterhttp://www.geh.org/ar/strip11/htmlsrc/hine_sld00001.html The website has about a thousand pictures by Hine that are not about child labor. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Where the Money Goes To: 1910
... 4020 Manchester Street." One in a series of photos by Lewis Hine showing the "frivolous" uses to which newsies put their earnings -- money ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/13/2011 - 10:14pm -

May 1910. St Louis, Missouri. "Where the money goes to. Bach branch office usually has a candy counter. 4020 Manchester Street." One in a series of photos by Lewis Hine showing the "frivolous" uses to which newsies put their earnings -- money spent on candy, ice cream, the nickelodeon, etc. View full size. Just GuessingJudging by Mr. Hine's choice of words for this series of photos, I'd say his own childhood was lacking in frivolity. Too bad. It's his money!Did Hine think that newsies couldn't spend a little of their own money for a treat? Lighten up Mr. Hine.The kid is wearing a hat advertising "Zeno Gum." If he has to be a walking billboard, at least let him sample the product. FoolishnessIf instead he had put that nickel into the stock market, it would be worth three cents today. I'll betLewis Hine was a lot of fun at parties. If it doesn't hurtShame on that kid for buying himself a candy bar. I once reported to a new outfit when I was in the Army. I entered the Orderly Room (the Company Headquarters), and there was a plaque on the First Sergeant's Desk that read "If it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right." That, I guess, was also Hine's psyche. Give Lewis Hine a breakI'm sure Lewis Hine got tired of being told that child labor was noble work to support families, and that it built character - arguments still being made on Shorpy a century later. So Hine took some pictures of wasteful spending - and promptly gets attacked for being against pleasure and freedom! Is that really candyFrom the previous pictures of newsies and their penchant for smoking I suspect that object he is buying is an all day cigar. FrivolitiesBecause we all know that adults NEVER spend their money on "frivolous" things. Frivolous?This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I would like to respond to Shorpy's comment: "One in a series of photos by Lewis Hine showing the 'frivolous' uses to which newsies put their earnings..." I word-searched all 5,000-plus Hine child labor photos on the Library of Congress site, and "frivolous" does not appear in Hine's captions. He does make occasional references to newsies spending money on gambling (or other unwise choices); and in the photo above, one could infer that Hine is commenting unfavorably about the boy spending his hard-earned change on candy. So what? What child hasn't experienced a mother or grandmother scolding him or her for wasting money on candy? It is well documented that early 20th century newsies, especially in urban areas, were working in an environment that we would never think of subjecting our children to now. So what's the point in trivializing Hine's important work with a cynical comment, especially when it appears to quote Hine as saying "frivolous," when he did not? I was a paper boyI had a paper route when I was about the same age as this young man. Stanton's Grocery Store was on my route and I would never pass it without parking my bike out front and going in and buying a Three Musketeers candy bar. It was the largest candy bar you could buy at the time for a nickel but it still wasn't near as large as the the candy in this picture. I spent 3 hours each day after school and 3 hours on Saturday collecting the papers, rolling the papers, and riding my bike up and down streets throwing the papers. On Sundays I had to be at the paper office at 6 AM. I deserved a treat and so did this young man. It was not frivolous. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, St. Louis)
Dormitory: 1909
... - Carr the Floorwalker, "Cool Hand Luke" Paging Lewis Hine Well, the place looks immaculately clean. Lewis Hine would have loved ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 2:26pm -

February 1909. Men's dormitory at the New York municipal lodging house. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size. Sleep Number"Any man not in his bunk at eight will spend a night in the box. There is no smoking in prone position in bed. To smoke you must have both legs over the side of your bunk. Anyone caught smoking in prone position will spend a night in the box. You get two sheets. Every Saturday you put the clean sheet on the top, the top sheet on the bottom and the bottom sheet you turn in to the Laundry Boy. Any man who turns in the wrong sheet spends a night in the box. No one will sit on the bunks with dirty pants on. Any man sitting on a bunk with dirty pants will spend a night in the box." - Carr the Floorwalker, "Cool Hand Luke" Paging Lewis HineWell, the place looks immaculately clean. Lewis Hine would have loved it. Wonder if it smelled like formaldehyde? Ikea for the ItinerantThe Dormitory is a remarkable foreshadowing of the Minimalist aesthetic and a number of other 20th century design trends. On another note, let's not be dissing LWH, people. You would surely be forgiven if you found his work just a trifle tendentious and I, for one, am not overly fond of didactic art, but Hine clearly had another agenda and art was probably just an incidental. I don't know to what degree Hine considered himself an artist (or not), but it seems clear that his commitment to documenting child labor was nothing short of heroic. By way of illustration, the inquisitive may wish to have a look here. Dave (or any of you kids in the peanut gallery), do you happen to know of a good biography of Hine? I think it would be difficult to spend any time around Shorpy and not be at least mildly curious about the man. On a more general note, there is not a day that goes by that I don't appreciate the efforts of the photographers whose work populates these pages and the yeoman service done by Dave and Ken and such others as may populate the Shorpy ranks. The work done in presenting these photos (choice, editing, captioning, &c.) is the very definition of 'value added'. The window that this site provides on the past is of incalculable value. As some of the Anonymous (and otherwise, myself included) Tipsters continually demonstrate, we need a lot of help in seeing past our 21st century prejudices. Faux PasI neglected to mention Joe Manning! And here I am asking about Lewis Hine... duh. Thanks, Joe. Hine BioI saw an excellent documentary last week on the Documentary channel called "America and Lewis Hine." It is being rebroadcast on 03/18/08, 04/02/08, 04/03/08, and probably more, because they replay programs often: http://www.documentarychannel.com/schedule/index.php NYTimes review. And there is a VHS copy for sale on Amazon. Too bad I'm posting this relative to someone else's photo. Hine BioThis is Joe Manning. The best three books I've read on Hine so far are: "Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor," by Russell Freedman and Lewis Hine "America and Lewis Hine: Photographs, 1904-1940," by Walter Rosenblum, Alan Trachtenberg, Naomi Rosenblum, and Marvin Israel "Lewis Hine in Europe: The Lost Photographs," by Daile Kaplan Fascinating Light FixturesAny information on them? (The Gallery, G.G. Bain, NYC)
Campbell Kids Kids: 1912
... the thread." View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Campbell Kids I understand Lewis Hine's mission was to persuade ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 11:47am -

March 1912. "Making dresses for Campbell Kid Dolls in a dirty tenement room, 59 Thompson Street, New York, 4th floor front. Romana family. The older boy, about 12 years old, operates the machine when the mother is not using it, and when she operates, he helps the little ones, 5 and 7 years old, break the thread." View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Campbell KidsI understand Lewis Hine's mission was to persuade Congress about the evils of child labor, but from today's perspective it seems unfortunate that he frequently used the term "dirty tenement room." It was a cold water, walk-up flat; they did the best they could. This one doesn't look dirty to me. The children are clean in clean clothes. And the two boys in stripes must be twins. Re: Campbell KidsOops! The boys I thought were "twins" are five and seven years old. Scratch that thought. SewingIt looks like they are making doll onesies. The boy on the right has a string of backs and fronts with yokes. Mama is stitching the backs and fronts together at the shoulder seams. The boy on the left is turning collar sections right side out. Interesting that mama does not have a spool of thread on her sewing machine. She may be using an industrial size spool feeding from the floor but unless she has a heavy stand the spool is likely to bounce around and snarl. Gypsies?Could he possibly mean that this is a "Romani" family? That is the proper term for gypsies. I come from a bit of Romanes background, and these children look to have a bit of the Rom in them. It would be unusual for most Rom to stay in a tenement - at least in the long term. What are Campbell kids? LikeWhat are Campbell kids? Like the Campbell soup kids/dolls? Doll clothes manufactureMy grandparents, both Italian teenaged immigrants, met and fell in love in a doll clothes factory in 1917. This family, also Italian, are doing the same thing. I always imagined the clothes they were sewing to be a bit more fancy; but who knows? Thanks for digging this one up. (Where do you find these photos?!?) SingerWhat I wouldn't give for that sewing machine. My mom has a brown metal Singer that belonged to her grandmother, and it's outlasted every plastic sewing machine we've ever had. I see that Lewis Hine's isI see that Lewis Hine's is at it again with his pejorative captions. I like seeing his photos of New York's Lower East Side, but Hine has got a bit of a loose screw about things being "dirty." https://www.shorpy.com/node/2213 treadle SingerTreadle sewing machines can be had for around $100. The thread coming up from the floor looks very thick, which is odd for sewing doll clothes. Regular sewing thread would barely be visible. She's probably using an industrial cone rather than a spool but, like Tracy said, it would have to be in some sort of holder to prevent it from rolling around. Wish I could see behind the little boy's chair! Hine's agendaWere his subjects aware of Hine's mission? It makes me sad to think they dressed in their Sunday best and invited him into their homes to be photographed, only to have him describe them in some pretty unflattering terms. Or did he believe that the ends justified the means? campbell's kidsyep, they were soup commercial dolls. Campbell Kid DollsIn most of the advertisements by Campbell Soup until the late 1940's, "The Kids" along with a four line poem promoting a favorite soup, appeared faithfully in the advertising media. Dolls of Campbell Kids were offered in 1910 as promotional items and were a hit. Through the years, the dolls have become popular collectors' items. [Link] Dirty?Of course, Hine was there and we were not... Campbell Kid DollFor those wondering what the dolls look like, a detail below from here. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
Just Wandered In: 1908
... happened in,' or are 'helping sister.' Witness Sara R. Hine." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Hine Was Sara Hine the wife of Lewis? What do you ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2012 - 8:52am -

December 3, 1908. "A little spinner in the Mollahan Mills, Newberry, S.C. She was tending her 'sides' like a veteran, but after I took the photo, the overseer came up and said in an apologetic tone that was pathetic, 'She just happened in.' Then a moment later he repeated the information. The mills appear to be full of youngsters that 'just happened in,' or are 'helping sister.' Witness Sara R. Hine." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. HineWas Sara Hine the wife of Lewis? What do you mean "out-sourced"?Sad. 1904 Hine marries Sara AnnIn 1904 Lewis Hine married Sara Ann Rich Forgetting Where We AreJust over 100 years ago. Imagine having had that childhood. (The Gallery, Factories, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Family Portrait: 1936
... the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Lewis Hine What a fascinating and beautiful collection. [Agreed, although ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/08/2011 - 8:52pm -

Summer of 1936. William Edward "Bud" Fields, wife Lily Rogers Fields and infant daughter Lilian at their sharecropper cabin in Hale County, Alabama. Photograph by Walker Evans for the Farm Security Administration. View full size. Lewis HineWhat a fascinating and beautiful collection. [Agreed, although this photo is by Walker Evans, not Lewis Hine. - Dave] No guile,no deceit, no looking away: a direct gaze, right at the camera. This is us, they seem to say: poor, proud and as honest as our home is bare. Denny Gill Chugiak, Alaska The DoorWho is that coming through the door behind them? Creepy. Fourth person...The only creepy thing I see on this picture is called poberty. [Let's not forget ignorance. - Dave] Are there not four in this picture?Am I imagining ghosts, or isn't a fourth person peeking around the back door? Fourth PersonThe caption mentions nothing about the mysterious (and somewhat sinister looking) individual, peeking through the door behind them. [It's Grandma - probably Lily's mother. - Dave] Older man, younger womanI am fascinated by the age difference. Maybe there is hope for me yet. Where is Lilian nowI want to know where the baby is now-- what is life like now? She'd be roughly 73-ish. How does it affect someone to be in a "historical" photo? Especially one documenting rural poverty of this kind. Fields family"The Most Famous Story We Never Told" (Fortune magazine). Includes a brief interview with a grandson of Bud Fields and other descendants of the Hale County families depicted in Evans's photographs and in the book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men." More on Walker Evans here. The FieldsesAt least they live in a cabin. There was a photo recently showing a family living in a tent. Family Portrait: 1936Notice the clean white sheets. I imagine the work it must have taken to keep them that way. It says a great deal. Newspaper Decor?What's in the clipping on the wall? I can't quite tell. Thanks! [I don't know if it's from a newspaper, but it says "The little Drakes." - Dave] Fields BandannaI seem to recall reading an interview with Lilian Fields who said that her father had some kind of abscess or skin lesion on his chest when the photo was taken. He draped a red bandanna around his neck to conceal it. (The Gallery, Great Depression, Rural America, Walker Evans)
Meet the Hazels: 1916
... of school." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Meet the Hazels 1916 This is Joe Manning, from the Lewis Hine ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/08/2011 - 6:51pm -

Nov. 10, 1916. Vicinity of Bowling Green, Kentucky. "Hazel family (very poorly educated). Children have not been to school this year although living within 1½ miles of school." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Meet the Hazels 1916This is Joe Manning, from the Lewis Hine Project (www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/lewishine.html). I have identified this family and communicated with numerous descendants, none of whom was aware of this or the other four Hine photos of this family in the Library of Congress. My research was helped considerably by an article (at my suggestion) in the Bowling Green Daily News. See http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2007/10/07/news/news5.txt Meet The Hazels: 1916This is Joe Manning of the Lewis Hine Project. I have finally completed my story about this family. I interviewed a son of the baby in the photo, a daughter of the tall girl in the center of the photo, and a daughter of an older girl who was not in the photograph. The Hazels owned their farm. Tragically, the father (standing just to our right of the window) died only five months after this photograph was taken. The mother (at left) died 25 months later. You can see the entire story, plus many photos, at http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/hazel-family-page-one/ Lewis Hine ProjectI am always interested to read up on the people identified in the photos, especially those interviewed by Joe Manning. Thanks so much for your terrific work. (The Gallery, Lewis Hine, Rural America)
Durward Nickerson: 1914
... a profitable kind of work." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. Lewis Hine Lewis Wickes Hine: Photographer, social reformer and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/26/2011 - 3:49pm -

"Durward Nickerson, Western Union messenger #55. Birmingham, Alabama. 18 years old. Lives in Bessemer, R.F.D. #1. Saturday night, Sept. 26, 1914, he took investigator through the old Red Light on Avenue A, pointed out the various resorts, told about the inmates he has known there. Only a half dozen of them were open now. Durward has put in two years in messenger work and shows the results of temptations open to him. He has recently returned from a hobo trip through 25 states. He was not inclined to tell much about the shady side of messenger work, but one could easily see that he has been through much that he might have avoided in a profitable kind of work." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. Lewis HineLewis Wickes Hine: Photographer, social reformer and busybody party-pooper extraordinaire. Shady workI had no idea messenger work could be so seedy. LisaHe looks old beyond his years. Great idea for a blog. I subscribed to your feed. Durward NickersonDurward M. Nickerson was the son of Otis Graham Nickerson & Hattie E. Shepard, great-grandparents of my husband, Jack Graham Weaver. Durward died in 1937 in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, at the age of 42. Patsy Weaver [Oh my. What happened? Did he leave a family? Thanks for the info. He seems like a dashing young man. - Dave] (The Gallery, Birmingham, Lewis Hine)
Lewis Hine (Not)
Three of my grandmother's siblings around 1915. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery) ... 
 
Posted by Mattie - 02/15/2009 - 8:03pm -

Three of my grandmother's siblings around 1915. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery)
Louis Pelissier: 1916
... as a sweeper. View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Louis date of birth I think we have a typo, DOB probably May 16, ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 12/18/2007 - 10:27pm -

June 19, 1916. Fall River, Mass. Louis Pelissier, 29 Eighth Street, 16 years old (May 16, 1916). Applicant 2nd grade - deficient mentality. Doesn't know name of place where he is going to work. Made it out for Small's mill, they weren't sure. Had been a sweeper but work was too hard for him. Didn't know how much he was to get. (Miss Smith to see what kind of card he got.) Worked at Union Mill, $3.27, as a sweeper. View full size. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Louis date of birthI think we have a typo, DOB probably May 16, 1900. I assume he was paid $3.27 per week. How did Hine find these people? [Oops. Fixed. Actually I think he is saying Louis turned 16 on May 16, 1916; I should not have added the word "born." But yes, 1900 is when he would have been born. From what I gather reading Hine's caption notes, he traveled from town to town to various factories looking for working kids. Many places had signs outside saying BOYS WANTED. He spent 16 years doing this (1908-1924), taking thousands of photographs with a gigantic view camera that must have weighed around a hundred pounds. - Dave] Lewis HineAbout a year ago I read a book titled "Empire Rising" by Thomas Kelly. It is a novel taking place around 1930 about the construction of the Empire State Building. Hine was the "official" photographer for the building, I suppose, hired by the corporation that built it. He is referred to often in the book. The copy I have (a full size paperback) has a picture on the cover of the building under construction in 1931, an amazing shot of a worker standing high up on the superstructure apparently sending a signal by pointing at someone below. The description of the photo on the back cover of the book describes it as "ATOP EMPIRE STATE - in construction: CHRYSLER BUILDING & (DAILY) NEWS IN MIDDLE FOREGROUND." I can plainly see the Chrysler Building, but they must have cropped the News building out of the shot. The picture is in the collection of the NY Public Library, which is not too far from where I live, and I think I'll walk over and see if I can see the original. I don't know if you have access to it, but it it's a natural for Shorpy. Mel Tillman (Mr Mel). (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
A Penny a Pound: 1910
... 7 weeks of school. He sells papers reluctantly." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Very Short Childhood My Grandfather was born ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/28/2012 - 8:54pm -

March 1910. Buffalo, New York. "Antonio Martina, 53 Carolina Street. 11 years old last summer. Attends School No. 1. He and a 13-year-old sister worked in sheds of Ellis-Canning Factory, Brant, N.Y., snipping beans at 1 cent a pound. Left for the country in May, returned late in September, losing about 7 weeks of school. He sells papers reluctantly." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Very Short ChildhoodMy Grandfather was born in 1899, very near Buffalo, and he lived to see three centuries! He was lucky to work for his family business, instead of going off to work as did this young boy. I grew up in East Aurora NY. Wonder if you Shorpy Gentleman have any old photos from that interesting Western NY Town? Here a kid, there a kidThe place is crawling with toddlers, one waiting to pounce (on the extreme right) and at least two in the window. With no T.V. I guess they had no entertainment. A Penny a Pound: 1910This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. Anthony A. Martina was born July 2, 1897, and died in Buffalo in January of 1986. His wife Sylvia died in Buffalo on September 29, 1989. According to the 1940 census, he had three children, Robert, James and Sylvia. Robert died in Buffalo on December 7, 2002. I have been unable to find any information on the whereabouts of the other two children. According to the Buffalo city directories and the WWI draft records, Anthony worked for the Iroquois Natural Gas Company from at least 1918 to 1956. I haven't been able to obtain obituaries for Anthony, his wife, or son Robert. Lewis Hine continued a great tradition.Fifty or so years earlier Henry Mayhew attempted to catalogue the lowest reaches of the poorer clases in "London Labour and the London Poor." This photograph is the closest I have seen to the the hand engravings which illustrate Mayhew's book, some of which were taken from early photographs. Mayhew's work had a great influence on the Victorian social reformers, including Dickens. "The Boy Crossing Sweepers" is shown below. A Penny a Pound: 1910Joe Manning again. I just talked with Anthony Martina's grandson, who was excited to hear about the photograph. I will notify Shorpy when I put the story together. One hand bigger?Is his right arm longer and right hand larger than his left? Would this be due to his snipping beans all day, probably with his right hand? Story of Antonio Martina, of BuffaloJoe Manning again, from the Lewis Hine Project. I have completed my story of Antonio (Anthony) Martina. He was adored by his grandson, whom I interviewed. He worked for the Iroquois Gas Company for 45 years, and lived a long time. You can see my entire story, including many photos of Anthony and his family, at this link. http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2015/01/25/anthony-martina/ (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Magnolia Mills: 1911
... All work." Our second look at this workroom. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Nice and clean And well lit. I'd rather ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/14/2012 - 11:48am -

March 1911. Magnolia, Mississippi. "Interior of Magnolia Cotton Mills spinning room. See the little ones scattered through the mill. All work." Our second look at this workroom. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Nice and cleanAnd well lit. I'd rather work here than in a Coal Mine. The boy in the middle actually seems to be smiling. NeighborsI grew up in the town next to Magnolia: Liberty, Ms. Both are really small towns (Liberty's census count is below 700), but both are county seats. There was a small but persistent textile industry in the area until the last few years. My mom worked at a sewing machine for decades. The industry was one of the few jobs available for women anywhere around there. Wasn't that great for men either. But now that textiles have departed, jobs are harder than ever to come by for women. Sure, there was a lot of risks working in any kind of factory, but I'm grateful for all the meals in my belly that the work helped to provide. Water Buckets?Are those water buckets high on the poles? To be used in case of fire? Fire pailsI believe the fire buckets may have been filled with sand. Water evaporated and would require someone to top them off now-and-then. Note the round bottoms that pretty much made them worthless for any other use so don't even think of taking one for home. In a few years they will be replaced with carbon tetrachloride extinguishers that effectively put out the fire but killed everyone in the vicinity with phosgene gas! Live better through chemistry. Lewis HineMy daughter and I visited the Columbus Museum of Art recently and saw an exhibit called Radical Camera that had some Lewis Hine prints. The photos had a different feel when I saw them up close. They seemed more authentic and heartfelt. (The Gallery, Factories, Lewis Hine)
Shady Saratoga: 1915
... Disneyland needs to reproduce those right now! Lewis Hine Alert Newsies at the center. Of course, something tells me that being a ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/14/2018 - 10:40am -

Saratoga Springs, New York, circa 1915. "Broadway at the United States Hotel." Looking more than a little like one of those idealized Disney "Main Streets." 5x7 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Everything I loveThis photo in particular just struck me and it has all the elements that keep bringing me back to Shorpy every day. I love the wonderful buildings, horse drawn carriages, early automobiles and well-dressed folks strolling down the sidewalk under stately trees. It could not get much more picturesque. It is a time and place I would trade almost anything for to see with my own eyes. But I am glad there are photos and that we have Shorpy, Dave and the other members sharing them with us. Keep up the great work! Main Street USAIt's interesting to note that when Walt Disney was creating Disneyland, his relationship to the historic period portrayed in his Main Street (approx. 50 years past) would be like ours to the 1950s and 60s. Street lights!I just noticed those wonderful street lights, that look like a little girl holding balloons. Disneyland needs to reproduce those right now! Lewis Hine AlertNewsies at the center. Of course, something tells me that being a newsboy in Saratoga Springs probably wasn't as bad as doing the same job in, let's say, Buffalo or NYC. Yet another awesome image for the colorizers out there! TodayI'll venture a guess that this street view today has virtually nothing remaining from 97 years ago, especially the trees! Can anybody provide a modern view? View Larger Map At the racesA timely photo, as this year's Saratoga race meeting starts in a few days. Some winners of the prestigious stakes from 1915: Alabama Stakes: Waterblossom Hopeful Stakes: Dominant Sanford Stakes: Bulse Spinaway Stakes: Jacoby Travers Stakes: Lady Rotha (A filly in a race usually dominated by males) I dabble in racing history, and have never heard of any of these horses. 1915 was a pretty lame year at the Spa! SpectacularWhat a glorious image; visual poetry. It is filled with so many priceless details. We have lost so much.... It would be an epic job but I hope that someone will please colorize this one. Majestic ElmsWhat strikes me most about this photo and hardly seen in present day are the elms that line the street. Such a sad thing and unique thing to have left us. Quite a bit remainsThey've done a great job of keeping this vantage particularly pretty much the same. There's been some fires and other changes but the "Adelphi" is still there and open (only in the summer). It's worth a visit for a cocktail in the garden. 1906 & today: Great American Main StreetMy apologies to "History Lover", but I do not have a photo of Saratoga's current Broadway to share. However, I can state that a great majority of what is visible in the photo does, in fact, still remain. Yes, much has changed and the Elms succumbed to disease many years ago, but it is a vibrant and rich downtown. Travel and Leisure named it as "One of America's Greatest Main Streets" and the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded it one of five "Great American Main Street" awards. The United States Hotel opened in 1874 and had 768 rooms and 65 suites. It was, however, surpassed in size by the Grand Union Hotel, which in its day was the largest hotel in the world, covering some seven acres. "Lost World" is right - opening day for Saratoga's 144th year of thoroughbred racing commences on Friday, July 20th! Lots of kids, butLove, love, LOVE this image, but where are the babies? The baby carriages? So many people and no little ones? [These are vacationing wealthy people. The babies would be with their nannies. - tterrace] Looks the same to meThe Saratoga Planning Departments should be commended. It still has amazing charm. These were taken in 2010. (The Gallery, DPC, Saratoga Springs)
Groceries and Meats: 1925
... a meat market ! And they also sell popcorn. Paging Lewis Hine Child labor gone completely M-A-D! Hmmm The tot looks like the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/14/2011 - 10:54am -

Washington, D.C., circa 1925. "F.G. Lindsay store front, Anacostia, 2215 Nichols Avenue." Exterior of the grocery seen here. National Photo Co. View full size. And Meats!Nothing like a side of beef hanging in the front window to get your appetite going! Proud craftsmenNotice how the sign company branded the wall sign? Even the overhead sign was signed! Ever see a vinyl letter job in some store window get autographed? Now THAT iswhat I call a meat market ! And they also sell popcorn. Paging Lewis HineChild labor gone completely M-A-D! HmmmThe tot looks like the Uneeda kid. The street name was changedThe street name was changed to Martin Luther King Jr Avenue. I believe it stood where the parking lot is now as the street numbers are even on the other side. "Buy this Flour"Oh yeah! and what if I don't? I'm so oldI remember when Nichols Avenue was Nichols Avenue. Lindsay RoadI grew up off Lindsay Road Oxon Hill, not far from Anacostia. wonder if this is man (or child) is related to its namesake? SeparatedI didn't notice the boy on the right at first. He looks sad and lonely. I know, I knowHe's a butcher, I get it, but I would probably be ill buying fresh meat from this man with the hunk of meat just hanging around in his window and the filthy apron. Guess I'll stick to Cub Stores and get the meat refrigerated. Yes, I am a spoiled woman of my time. I am not going to say this again"Mister, I will be back here tomorrow morning bright and early and I had better be seeing some flypaper hanging near that beef! The Board of Health is just not going to cut you any more slack. Oh, and from now on turn your apron inside out every day around noon. Say, wrap me up a couple of those pork chops, OK?" (The Gallery, D.C., Natl Photo, Stores & Markets)
Twitter: 1921
... yes, they are These birds. All dead now. Caption by Lewis Hine January 15, 1920, Kanawha County, West Virginia: John "Tweety" Bird ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/08/2014 - 12:39pm -

August 3, 1921. Washington, D.C. "Mrs. Jno. W. Clarke." Shown tweeting. National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. Bird LadySo does Ms. Clarke run a pet shop or is this an early 20th century version of the proverbial cat lady, bird-style? Question for bird fanciersCome heating season, won't the tier of cages immediately above the radiator be too hot for safety? Did Jno?A Google search reveals that Jno is the abbreviation of the name John. What this accomplishes escapes me as when the obligatory period is included, no space has been saved. Perhaps some ink. Under the cabinetlurks Sylvester. NaturallyShe's an aviatrix. PoorlySo is that bird sick? Is she giving it tweetment? I Tawt I taw a Puddy tat!She looks like the prototype for Granny. Oh, yes, they areThese birds. All dead now. Caption by Lewis HineJanuary 15, 1920, Kanawha County, West Virginia: John "Tweety" Bird (left, age 8) and his brother James "Canary" (right, age 6), have been working in the safety division of the local mines, sniffing out lethal fumes, since they dropped out of the local school of music. Pictured with their boss, Mrs. William Pennypincher. An older brother Joe hasn't been seen in quite a while, but Mrs. Pennypincher tells the others not to worry. Toasty Tweeters - Colorizing ChaosMost hot-water radiator thermostats would probably be far too imprecise to properly regulate the heat and avoid a 'roast', so maybe that radiator went unused in the winter. Some of the birds look like lovebirds, others perhaps budgies or parakeets; what a challenge for someone intent on 'colorizing' the photograph! InterventionGood thing that old broad is dead. I'd turn her in for hoarding. (The Gallery, Animals, D.C., Natl Photo)
Addie Card: 1910
... "stay." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Thanks Joe Manning I just finished the article Joe wrote about ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/24/2012 - 7:04pm -

February 1910. Addie Card, 12 years old, anemic little spinner in North Pownal Cotton Mill, Vermont. Girls in mill say she is ten years. She admitted to me she was twelve; that she started during school vacation and would "stay." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Thanks Joe Manning I just finished the article Joe wrote about Addie. I am impressed with your writing skills and the story of the little spinner. Thanks to you and to the staff at shorpy that have such a wonderful site. Addie Card: 1910Joe Manning again. At the risk of being reduntant, this was the first Hine photo I researched for my Lewis Hine Project. Addie lived to be 94 years old. See the whole story of my research at www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/addiesearch1.html Author Elizabeth Winthrop wrote an award-winning children's novel based on this photo. It's called "Counting On Grace." See www.elizabethwinthrop.com Amazing WorkThat is a wonderful piece of research you did, and a great read to boot. Thanks for sharing! The search for Addie CardJoe Manning's story about the search for "an anemic little spinner" is absolutely fascinating. Thank you, Joe, for the genealogical detective work and the story about it (and I laughed -- and groaned -- with you about finding that first headstone!) BTW, be sure to check out the "About Joe Manning" page on his site, and learn why he's in the Baseball Hall of Fame (well, some of his work is) and has a connection with Arlo Guthrie. No shoes...It always amazes me to see kids working without shoes in factories where you would not dare to enter without workboots nowadays... how times change. I can't imagine not having shoes in a place like Vermont where it's warm only 3-4 months a year! BarefootIt's impossible to imagine that she preferred to go barefoot in such a dirty, dangerous place. Poverty must have left her with no choice. It's shocking to think that she had to work just to feed herself at a job that didn't even pay enough to buy shoes. Talk about oppression and child abuse. [These kids weren't working to feed themselves; the money usually went to their parents, with some diverted to, as Lewis Hine often noted, "frivolities" like candy or "the moving pictures." As for being barefoot, we read in the historical accounts of former millworkers that going without shoes was often their own choice, or that the owners enforced a shoes-off rule to keep the floors clean. Generally speaking, these kids were not especially poor. - Dave] Addie CardWhen I interviewed Addie's descendants, they said that Addie Card told them that she had one pair of shoes, which she wore to only to church. She didn't wear them at the mill so she wouldn't get them dirty. -Joe Manning, Lewis Hine Project A Hearty Thanks......to Shorpy and Joe Manning for the fascinating photos and the research of their subjects - such as are linked in the comments. Bravo! Addie Card: 1910This is Joe Manning again. The link to my story of Addie, as noted above, has changed. It is now: http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/addie-card-search-for-an-ame... (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Great-Grandpa was a PA coal miner
... can read and print these articles. Good luck! Joe Manning, Lewis Hine Project. Johnny DeVera My dear father passed away one week ago. he ... 
 
Posted by gmr2048 - 02/01/2008 - 1:18pm -

Miners from near Hazleton, PA. Exact year unknown (probably early 1900s). My great-grandfather is the bottom-left miner. View full size. Great photo! Where isGreat photo! Where is Hazleton?? My Gr. Granpa and Granpa were from "Six Mile Run". Also miners. don't think they are in your photo, but really looked. Gayle [The caption says Hazleton is in Pennsylvania (as opposed to Hazelton, in West Virginia). Google Maps shows it near Scranton. - Dave] PA CoalminersMy great-grandfather (a Lithuanian immigrant) was also a coal miner in the Hazleton area right around dthis same time frame. I'd love to know more about the people in the picture, or at least your great-grandfather. PA CoalminersI just happened to stumble onto this site and boy, the memories are flooding! My grandfather and greatgrandfather were both minors from Hazleton. Both are long gone but I still travel from Connecticut to Hazleton on a regular basis to visit family there. We have 5 generations going there. PA CoalminersI too had a grandfather and greatgrandfather from Hazleton who were coalminers. They came from Czechoslovakia around 1910. I still make trips from CT to PA to visit family there. PA Coal MinersMy grandfather came from Poland and also worked in the mines in Hazleton, PA. I seem to remember the family saying it was the highest point in Pennsylvania. I had relatives who lived both in Freeland and Highland not far from Hazleton. - Chris PA coal minersHazleton, PA is in the "hard coal" or anthracite region of PA mining country. I grew up in Windber, in southwestern PA, in the "soft coal", or bituminous region. My uncle worked in the mine. I remember the "strike breakers" going to work, and more than that, I remember the BIG men with BIG guns who prevented anyone from interfering. I was about 5 or 6 yrs old. I still have a dear friend who lives there. (We are octogenarians). Has anyone else noticed the 3 or 4 very young men, boys really, in the picture? My great grandfathers tooMy great-grandfathers both worked as coal miners in northeast PA, not sure if it was Hazleton or another town though. One was from Poland and the other was from Romania. Pa. CoalminersMy great grandfather. grandfather, and great uncles were all coalminers in western Pa. One great uncle was killed in a cave in in 1927. Back then mining was done with picks and shovels and work was sporadic at best. Mines in BelgiumI had too a grandfather and others in my great grandfamily who were miners here in Frameries - Borinage - Belgium. Some of them and many other coworkers and friends died in the many coal mines installed in Borinage in the 19th and half part of the 20th century. They worked hard and live wasn't very pleasant everyday. A link to the last mine in Borinage closed in 1961, now a museum. http://www.pass.be/index.jsp Other links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frameries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borinage http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borinage http://www.google.be/search?hl=fr&q=borinage+mines&btnG=Rechercher&meta= PA CoalminersMy grandfather and great grandfather were coal miners in NE Pa (Plymouth, near Wilkes-Barre, which is of course near Hazleton). They were of Irish descent, and lived very hard lives. My great-grandfather lived in a home owned by the coal company, as did most of his time, and died in a mine collapse in 1895. His son lived into his late forties, and succumbed to 'black lung'. Fortunately, the family line continued and are all living much healthier and longer lives, some of them still in the NE Pa region. coal dust in our veinsAlthough no one in my family was a miner, I am from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvcania and grew up with the consciousness of coal. I recall vivdly being a very small girl in the early 50s and hearing every morning on the radio the announcements of which mines wouild be working, and which, idle. Presumably, if the mine didn't work, you didn't get paid. Mining was the only economy of the area, and when the mines finally closed, the Wyoming Valley -- probably never ever a real boomtown, certainly never for the miners--sank into depression from which it has never recovered. Our house was heated with coal; the truck would come periodically and empty its load into the chute. I would take the dark, hard crystals that had spilled in the driveway and try to draw on the sidewalk with them. As the 60s and 70s wore on, obituaries in the paper were filled with notices of old, and not so old, men who had succombed to anthracosis--black lung--the miner's scourge. The men in the mines were taken ruthless adventage of by mine owners, who exploited them and offered them shacks to live in which, even into the 60s, had no indoor plumbing. I would like to recognize all of the souls who worked so hard for so little, many of whom met their deaths deep underground. Benetah those smudged faces were proud and hardy men. Plymouth PA CoalminersMy Mother was born and raised in Plymouth, moving away in 1936-37. Her Father, and other relatives were miners. I'd like to hear from others with similiar backgrounds from the area. I still drive thru Plymouth a couple times a year. bb1300@aol.com coal miner's granddaughterGreetings from another NE PA native. My great-grandfather, great-uncles and grandfather all worked in the coal mines of northern Schuylkill County. Other relatives worked in the factories, foundries and mills in the area. This part of the country was also the birthplace of the American labor movement and I am proud to say I'm a union member. Does Anyone Have?My mother told me that we had an ancestor who was killed at one of the Southwestern PA coal mines in the early 20th century. Where might I find a list of those who lost their lives in the PA coal mines long ago? Please contact me at pje6431@hotmail.com. Thanks. PA CoalminersMy step-grandfather was also a miner in Western PA in the period 1910-1920?? I don't know if it was Hazelton. His name was Dominick Demark or Demarco. He and my grandmother and my father came from Canada, but my father and grandmother were originally from Chaleroi, Belgium. Hazleton, PA CoalminersMy great-grandfather and great-uncle worked as coal miners in Hazleton, PA. Both were born in Kohanovce, Slovakia. Great-grandfather, George Remeta, immigrated around 1892. How would I find which mine he might have worked in? I keep thinking I might be looking at a picture of him and never know it! Also, does anyone know if payroll records or employee records exist? Mine near HazeltonThe Eckley Mining Village is located near Hazelton and Freeland PA. It is an interesting village and informative as well. Some of the homes are still lived in but when the occupants die the homes belong to the village. Well worth a visit. There are some names available and the museum and churches are very good. Dot Great-grandpa was a PA coal minerGreat photo...my grandfather was too a Lithuanian immigrant and worked in the mines in Scranton Pa. I cherish the stories my mom told me of her father during that time. I once took a tour of the Lackawanna Mines..it was an experience I will never forget. My hats off to our forefathers! grandpa worked in the mines.My grandfather worked in the mines in the Hazleton area also, he kept journals, the year 1946 he speaks about working in tunnel 26 and such....hard life. HazletonHazleton is in east central PA, near Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Wilkes Barre and Scranton. Upstate, as my grandparents called it. They were from Welsh coal miner stock and were born near/in Hazleton. These are hard, anthracite coal mines that had been worked heavily since the first railroads went through in the 1840s. mining accidentMy great grandfather was killed in a mining accident at Highland #2 colliery in Luzerne Co. PA on 2/13/1888. Would anyone know how I could get a newspaper article/obit/any info available on this accident???? Anthracite mining recordsI don't think they are available online, but the Pennsylvania Archives has microfilm of old PA mine accident records http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/Coal%20Resources.htm I'm pretty sure the coal region county historical society libraries have them too. Re: Mining accidentTry newspaperarchive.com. What was your great-grandfather's name? anthracite mining recordsFound some online. They even have 1888. Try here: http://www.rootsweb.com/~paluzern/mines.htm Throop Coal Mine Disaster of 1911I see you are from Scranton. I am from Pittston. I put together a booklet on the Throop (Pancoast) mine disaster. I included a few Scranton Mine accidents. If interested the booklet sells for $12. I will pay postage. Jim Bussacco 1124 Main St. Pittston Pa email bing1124.1@netzero.com Anthracite coal miningI always like logging onto your site. My father and three brothers were coal miners in the Pittston region. I worked as an outside laborer in the tipple of a mine. In 1943, I left the mine to go into the US Navy. When I returned after the war. I worked in strippings. Pittston was the greatest town in anthracite mining and had plenty of accidents. The last being the Knox mine disaster in 1959. I wrote a book about coal mining in Pittston, including most of the major disasters. I also have a great collection of coal mine pictures, including the Knox Mine Disaster. I hope more people with coal mine connections log in your site, Thank you Jim Bussacco bing1124.1@netzero.com PrepselsLooking for info on Prepsels, late 1800s early 1900's. My grandfather Raymond Prepsel (spelled Prepsal on some papers) came from Austria/Hungary to work the mines in the Hazelton area. On his certificate of competency issued by the Miners' Examining Board of the Fifth District of Luz. Co., Pa. dated July 16, 1898, his name is spelled Bribsel. He resided in Deringer in Luzerine [Luzerne?] County. My great-grandfather Paul was also living in the area and in Lost Creek, Pennsylvania. I'm doing my family tree and hope someone who reads this can help me. I only know that Elizabeth Prepsel (Raymond's sister ) married a Leo Witkowski and lived in Lost Creek. I'll keep checking back on this site. This is the names of the people who signed his competency certificate are Anthony Reilly, Isaac Williams and William Dinko. My Great Grandfather is in the photo too!John Yuhasz, the tall gent in the back row, fifth from the right (including the boy) is my great grandfather. He migrated from Hungary to work in the mines. He built a home on Goodman Street in Throop by the ball field just before he was killed in the accident. His wife never remarried, but his son, my grandfather Louis, worked in the mines until he was in his early 30's, then moved to Detroit, where he worked for Packard Motor Cars. My mother has this photo too. Louis passed away in 1994 at the age of 87, but he still had his carbide lamp. My Great-Grandfather was a Coal Miner too!He lived near the Hazleton area and actually died in a mine collapse in 1928. I have tried to find records of this mine explosion, but all I can find is a list of mine explosions, and there was one where 10 men died in Parsons, Pa. There was no article attached. I'm thinking that might have been the one where he died. According to family stories, he died during a rescue attempt. Anyway, on the upper right hand corner of this picture is a young man standing in the background who has a strong resemblance to some of the pictures I have of my Great-Grandfather. I would love to be able to find out if that was him. Looking for CoalAnyone know where I can order/buy a sample of anthracite? Mine AccidentGo to www.nytimes.com, and do an archive search for the 1851 to 1980 archives. Put WILKES BARRE MINE in the search box, and confine your search to May 25, 1928 to May 31, 1928. You will come up with three articles about the Parsons mine disaster. However, you will only be able to see the headlines. If you can find a public or college library that has ProQuest, which gives you free online access to the NY Times, you can read and print these articles. Good luck! Joe Manning, Lewis Hine Project. Johnny DeVeraMy dear father passed away one week ago. he and my mother are both from Pittston. PA. while going through his things, we came upon a story about a coal miner who never wanted his 11 year old son to follow in his footsteps, but rather wanted him to find a new life. Unfortunately, as the story goes, he found a new life, only to return to the old and meet his death. it is a two page story. beautifully written. my grandfather was a great writer. the story has no author. we are trying to locate the author. could be my father too. we wonder if this is a true story, regarding the outlaw, Johnny DeVera, the son of a coal miner in PA Hazleton, PennsylvaniaHazleton is near where the Luzerne, Carbon, and Schuylkill County lines meet. It is about 28 miles South or Southeast of Wilkes-Barre. PA Lithuanian Coal MinersMy grandfather was a Lithuanian miner sometime before 1960. He lived in Pittston. I'd like to find out more about the Lithuanian miners and their families. Pancoast mine disasterMy grandfather (Joseph Urbanowich) and perhaps his father worked the Pancoast mine .. I was wondering if your information includes the names of the 72 people who perished in the disaster. My grandfather was only 12 at the time, and I cannot find any information about his father. My grandfather was Lithuanian, lived on Bellman Street in Throop (Dickson City) in 1917 .. and then a couple of other places in Dickson City. I vaguely remember him saying something about being born around Wyoming Pa as well .. In any case, I'm interested in your booklet .. do you take paypal ?? Belgian minersDoes anyone have information on Max Romaine or Alex Small from Primrose Pa.? Alex was my grandfather and Max my great uncle. We are trying to build a family tree and don't have much information on the Romaine part of the family. I know for sure Alex worked in the mine for 50 years and helped get benefits for black lung. I believe Max was also a miner. Throop PAI was just reading your reply regarding your greatgrandfather being in the photo. i was born and raised in Throop and both of my grandfathers worked at the pancoast mine and also my wifes grandfather. Do you have any other names of people in the photo? I hae a lot of info regading Throop and can be contacted at sandsroad1@hotmail.com. thanks Anthracite coalYou're asking about a chunk of anthracite coal. I can sell you a 5 or 6 pound piece for $5 plus postage. I live in Pittston. Jim Bussacco bing1124.1@netzero.com River ferries & PA coal minesMy grandfather ran a river ferry at Frank, Pennsylvania, also called Scott Haven (name of the post office). The name of the coal mine was different and I have forgotten what it is. I would like to know if anyone knows where this place is today. I have pictures of the ferry and the school. Granddad moved the family in about 1920 to Crooksville, Ohio to a dairy farm. The mine either closed or was a strike and he had a family to keep. Any help is appreciated. Judy Langsford PAI am also interested in confirming a Lithuanian miner of No. 9 mine in Langsford, PA. Any help would be appreciated. Michael Lucas or Lukas or Lukasewicz. Thanks! Lance Lucas Amherst, MA Scott HavenScott Haven is on the Youghigheny River south of McKeesport.Coal mines in this area were Shaner,Guffy and Banning.Many other small independent mines.There is not much left in Scott Haven now.I'm not sure there is even a post office left. Knox mine disasterMy grandfather was the last one pulled out. Next Jan 22 is there any talk of a get together? Hazleton MinesMy great grandparents Stephen and Mary Dusick came to this country in 1888 from Spisska Nova Ves in Slovakia. They knew the place as Iglo Spisska Austria. They had a one year old son also named Stephen. My great grandfather and my grandfather worked in the mines. On the 1900 census I learned that my father, a 13 year old boy, was working as a slate picker. Perhaps George Remeta or his children knew my family. :)My grandfathers 1917 draft registration gives the name of the mine but I find it hard to read. Looks like Pzeda Bros. & Co Lattisonee Mines PA. I know I'm not close but maybe someone will recognize a few letters. correction: Lattimer Mines is place where my grandfather workedAfter doing more research I now know the place was Lattimer Mines but I still cannot read _____ Bros. & Co ____ Lattimer Mines and Mine RecordsPardee Brothers and Co. Ario (Ariovistus) Pardee was patriach of one of the three prominent families (Markle and Coxe Families are the others)who first developed the mines in the Hazleton Area also known as The Eastern Middle Anthracite Field. Pardee operated the Lattimer Mines where my great grandfather worked and where my grandmother was born. For those looking for mining records, look for the Annual Report of the Inspector of Mines. These reports cover PA's anthracite and bituminous mining districts from 1870 to present. The reports from 1870 to 1920 or so are particularly detailed. If you had an ancestor who was killed or injured in an accident, his name, age, and a description of the incident will be included. You can find some years for some districts online at rootsweb. Otherwise if you know the area where they worked, the local library may have copies. If not the State Library and PA Geologic Survey Library in Harrisburg have the complete set. Lansford PAIt's Lansford, not Langsford. The No. 9 mine is now a tourist attraction. It also has a museum which has lots of history and photos. WOW!Wow! I haven't been back to Shorpy for a while now, and it's cool to see that this photo has sparked such a discussion! I'll take a look at my original scan when I get home tonight and see if there is any other info on the back of the image. I scanned both front and back. (The original photois in the possession of my Uncle). As I remember it, tho, the only person identified is my great-great grandfather. I'll post back if I find anything else interesting. Your grandfather John YuhaszDo you know the names of the other miners in the photo? I'm still looking for information on my great grandfather, George Remetta and his son, also George, who were coal miners in Hazleton or Freeland during that time. Also, what was the name of the mine? Stephen and Mary DusickIf you could let us know the exact name of the mine it would help! Not sure if my great grandfather, George Remetta, knew your relatives. If there were Slovak Lutherans, there is a great chance they knew each other. My great grandparents attended Sts. Peter and Paul Slovak Lutheran church in Freeland. Church records are available through LDS Family centers and are complete although they are written in Slovak! Let me know...I'll be checking back with this site from time to time! Deb Remetta DusickThe 1900 census just says that my great grandfather worked in a local mine. Doesn't help. They were Roman Catholic as far as I know. My grandfather's 1917 draft registration form gives more clues. He worked in the Lattimer mines and lived on 992 Peace Street Hazleton. When my great grandfather was 60 in the 1920 census he said he worked with a timber gang. Does anyone know what that was? My grandfather worked as a slate picker when he was 13. Those poor young boys. John McGarveyMy grandfather died in a cave-in in 1887, before my father was born in late November 1887. Name John McGarvey. wmcgarvey@tampabay.rr.com Great-GranddadMy great-grandfather John Davies was a coal miner from Milnesville. I believe he's in this photo, bottom right hand corner, second from the right. He came to the U.S. from Wales between 1880 & 1895. Hello from WindberHello from Windber, Pa. I am writing stories at the present for our new quarterly historical newsletter for the Windber Area Musuem, it is being mailed out to museum members as a thank you for their support, membership is only $5 per yr, if interested in receiving it. Your story of remembering the guns, etc. is one of the few I have heard from someone who actually still remembers that period of time in Windber's coal strikes., etc. If you have any photos, or a story of interest, small or big, memories, etc. that I could put in our newsletter I would be happy to receive it. Also if you happen to have served in the military service we are planning to honor the men and woman from this area by having their photos and service records displayed during the month of July in the museum. thank you for your interest in our endeavor. Patricia M. Shaffer, dstubbles5@aol.com No. 9 MineMike Lukas was my grandfather from Lansford, Pa., and worked in the No. 9 mine until it closed in 1972. - Mike Futchko badkarmahunter@yahoo.com No 6 mine LansfordI am looking for any info on # 6 mine in Lansford. My grandfather was a miner there and suffered a massive stroke in the mine. PLEASE if you have any info or pictures of this mine, PLEASE contact me papasgirl@verizon.net. Thank you very much. Lithuanian Miner George NeceskasMy grandfather George Neceskas was a miner in Scranton PA at the Marvin Mine. (His Army discharge papers list his name as George Netetsky). Some of his relatives still live in Scranton, although I am not personally acquainted with any of them. None of us ever went down in the mines after he did. He had 4 children. 3 of those 4 had a total of 6 children (including my brother and I) and those 6 children had a total of 8 children. 2 of those 8 children have 2 children each. None of those 4 bear his last name anymore, although there are still some Neceskases living in New England now. Only his children spoke Lithuanian. None of his other descendants were taught the language. Pa. MinersHi! My family (from Plymouth) were all coal miners. They were McCues, Burnses and Keefes, from Carver Street and Vine Street and Shawnee Avenue. My Uncle Fritz (Francis Keefe) was blown up in a mining accident in the 1950's, and nearly killed, but left with a green freckled face on the left side. The early relatives were Hugh McCue and Peter Burns from Ireland. County Cork and County Downs. Do you know anything of that? My mother's father, Patrick McCue, born in the 1870's, worked as a breaker boy starting when he was 9. He was orphaned that year. Please respond to Turkeyfether@aol.com Thanks, Kathy My great great grandfather My great great grandfather worked in the PA coal mines. He died in 1906 in Scranton when he failed to heed his helper's warnings to not go back and relight the fuse. He was 46. I have his obituary and death certificate. He suffered a crushed hand, fractured skull and a fractured radius and died from shock. There were reports that his eyeball fell out but I'm not sure. His wife had a ride to the hospital but did not have a ride back so she had to walk 15 miles back home to tell my great grandfather and his siblings that their dad had died. So, my great grandfather and his younger brother started working in the mines when they were 11 and 10, respectively. He was born in Switzerland and only spoke German at home. He's buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Taylor. I think my great grandfather started working Pyne Breaker in Taylor and my aunts at the Economy Silk mill in Taylor. Coal miners in the 1920 CensusI'm researching family in VA and WV. I found in a 1920 census in column 13 (normally for year of immigration) the letters BWF and sometimes MH and these men were coal miners. Can anyone tell me what the initials stand for? I'm aware of the UMWA, a union. Could they be the initials of the company name of the mine? Also the birth state has USW above the state name. Am I on the right track? Thanks for any help. Carol Caf1b2h@cox.net [Googling those initials gives this answer: The census abbreviation BwF means boy living with father; MH means a miner is the head of the household. - Dave] Two Lithuanian GGF's were Coal MinersOne was naturalized in 1892. He lived in Scranton, Nanticoke or Sheatown at various times. I suspect he was brought over as "Contract Labor". That was the story from Grandfather, supposedly it was a German firm. Anyone know the names of the companies that did this sort of thing, in those days? Does anyone understand what the immigration process was at that time? I'm trying to work backwards from the Naturalization to establish the year he came over. His last name was Lastauskas (which morphed into Lastowski). Underwood CollieryI am looking for pictures, information, families that have relatives that lived in Underwood Village near Scranton that are interested in sharing photos, etc. My grandfather was a mine superintendent there until they tore the village down. Thanks. [How are people supposed to get in touch with you? - Dave] Underwood Connection?I recently found a photo of breaker boys on a site called "100 Photographs that Changed the World" by LIFE. My grandfather and G. Grandfather worked in the mines in PA and W.V. The 4th boy from the left, in the front row I believe is my grandfather. If you took my nephew, put him in those clothes, and smeared coal dust on his face, you would not be able to tell them apart. Even the way he stands to the look on his face (we call that the Underwood scowl, my dad had it, my son has it, and my granddaughter has it. In researching the picture, it was breaker boys from South Pittson, PA. If any one has any information on Clyde or Fred Underwood, I would be excited to hear from you at: kenginlaz@comcast.net. Thanks! Mining disaster 1911I live in the uk and have two family members with a date of death/ burial 13/5/1911. Can you tell me where I could find a list of miners killed in Throop disaster in 1911. My email is caroleh1@hotmail.com Mining disaster infoI would recommend contacting the following for starters: http://www.pioneertunnel.com/home.shtml After that, try the Pennsylvania Archives at: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&objID=2887&&leve... One other area is the Luzerne County website. http://www.luzernecounty.org/living/history_of_luzerne_county These people are an excellent resource at the Osterhout Library: http://www.osterhout.lib.pa.us/ Last but not least. Go here first: http://www.luzernecounty.com/links2.htm I do not think you will be too successful in your quest. I hope I have been somewhat helpful to you and not caused too much confusion. Good luck. Williams Coal MinerMy great-grandfather and great-uncle both died in a coal mining explosion near Scranton. I am not sure where though. My dad says it was before he was born, prior to 1928. He thinks it was in Taylor, PA. Anyone have any info on Williams? rcanfield4@yahoo.com Davis miners of Schuylkill Co. PAMy David ancestors were all coal miners from Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. John Davis, my great-great-great grandfather, came from Wales as a small child. He married Ann Hanna and died in 1902. One of their sons, David David Davis [??] (my great-great grandfather), and Charles Garfield Davis (great grandfather) were miners. I don't know if at any point they spelled or changed their name from Davies to Davis. But there were so many Davis and Davies miners during that time. This was such a huge family with so many children from each generation and I know there were other John Davis'/Davies in the family. Do you have any further info about the family I could research and maybe help? Please email me, froggy3538@msn.com Lithuanians in the PA minesMy great grandfather and great-grandmother worked in the Scranton mines during the early 1990s [1890s? - Dave]. My grandmother was born in Scranton in 1915.I am interested in finding more info especially documentation of their existence. Their names were August and Anna Palukis. Have you found any similar info? My email address in barthra@utrc.utc.com Thanks Bob Barth from CT. Taylor Borough Mine Disaster 1907I now have more information regarding when and where my Great GF and Great Uncle were killed. It was the Holden Mine in Taylor Borough, PA. Any information would be great! rcanfield4@yahoo.com dot2lee@yahoo.com Hazelton MinesMy mother's father, Conrad Sandrock, worked the mines around Hazelton most of his life. They lived in a small town just out side of Hazelton called Hollywood. There were strip mines across the road when I was young (1950s and '60s). I always love looking at the pictures on this site and wondering if my grandfather worked with any of these men. I know I have never worked a day in my life that would compare to one day in these mines. I take my hat off to all the men who fed their families do this kind of work. Would love to see the average kid nowadays try that. G-Grandfather Lithuanian coal miner in Hazleton.Apparently my Lithuanian G-Grandfather was a coal miner in Hazleton, PA around 1900-1915. Haven't been able to find out much more information than that. Anyone know where I can find census records, by chance? Information pleaseMy great-grandfather immigrated from Hungary to work the coal mines at Derringer and Tomhicken circa 1887. I welcome any information you may have about how they were recruited, how they were transported from the port of entry to Tomhicken. The Pennsylvania Historical society record of Lucerne County said miners paid for a plot of land to bury their loved ones. My great-grandparents lost three of their children and I would like to locate where they are buried. Also I am interested in knowing if their deaths were recorded by the State of Pennsylvania or some other agency (Town, County) that existed at the time. Finally, I want to know of any stories that were written about the life that they and their families endured during this time. Please contact me at mtkotsay@gmail.com Thank you very much. [Your great-grandparents -- what were their names? - Dave] Taylor, PA, Coal Miner RelativesMy mother's family is from Taylor where her father, George Zigmont was a coal miner. They lived in a neighborhood called "The Patch." The houses were built on top of the mineshafts while they were digging the coal out underneath. Years later the abandoned shafts started caving in and the houses became unstable. The entire community was condemned and the homeowners forced to move. My grandfather, his daughter, my great-aunt (who owned Rudy's Bar at the top of 4th Street) and her daughter were among those who had to give up their homes and got virtually nothing for their property or houses. I believe this was in the 1960s or possibly early '70s. George's father, Anthony Zigmont, immigrated from Austria/Poland in 1893 and settled in Taylor. How did these immigrants wind up in Taylor from Ellis Island? Did someone direct them there? Did they already have relatives in the area? Was there a group who immigrated from the motherland and settled together in Taylor? If so, does anyone know where in Austria/Poland they came from? Slovakia, miners fromOne looks like my grandfather. Second row down on left in white shirt and tie. Mikula is last name. He came to PA mines after death of his father in mine accident. Also Mikula. GF left mines to work in auto plant in Detroit. Greenwood Colliery & drifts behind Birney Plaza, Pa.Information received. Immigrant coal minersMy grandfather immigrated from Slovakia and worked the coal mines in Coaldale, Pennsylvania. Does anyone know what year this might have been? My great-grandfatherMy great-grandfather was also a coal miner for Moffat Mines. His place of employment was near Taylor in Lackawanna County. I recently retraced his steps and wrote about it here. What a challenging life they led. (ShorpyBlog, Member Gallery, Mining)
A Typical Group: 1910
... for the other companies.)" Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Library of Congress. View full size. Bless their Arbusy little ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/12/2011 - 11:25am -

New York, July 1910. "A typical group of messengers at Postal Telegraph Company's main office, 253 Broadway. During hot weather they wear these shirtwaists. (A Suggestion for the other companies.)" Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Library of Congress. View full size. Bless their Arbusy little heartsIt's a gnome convention! Have you ever seen so many weak eye muscles in all your life? The eyes have itLadies and gentlemen, we have the largest collection of "deer in he headlights" ever seen on the web....especially those two guys on the left!! Yeowww! Either that or somebody just hit them over the head with a blunt object. Ethnic kidsThis seems to be what the "ethnic" kids were doing - working for a living instead of going to summer camp with the wealthy blond boys. QuestionWhat were or are "shirtwaists"? [A shirt. As opposed to the suit coats that were the standard messenger uniform. - Dave] Please keep the Hine photos comingLewis Hine, with his unique mixture of an artist's eye and a social worker's concern, left us an endlessly fascinating, provocative, and touching picture a world that is far away but also the past of us all and the family heritage of many of us. Seeing a Hine photo on Shorpy is always a treat. . . . And Dave, please give us bigger versions of those three images you added as comments here! [They are on my to-do list. - Dave] How old?How old do you suppose these boys are? They look short in stature but their faces have such a mature look to them. Like old men faces on little boy's bodies. DishonestIt is dishonest for Shorpy not to publish my comments on the "ethnic kids". It preserves history as a venue for gatekeepers, no matter how talented (or untalented) they are. While the site is undoubtedly remarkable for its inquiry into the past, the gatekeeper, "Dave", is a pedant of some sort who makes his comments from the safety of a black box. The results are predictable: as the site becomes a sentimentalized view of the past it will become less interesting. [Actually I'm just trying to spare you comments like this. - Dave] SpiffyNice ties! Shorpy Has An Upside Too ...In the comment section for the Berberich Shoe Store photo, I mentioned that a downside in visiting this site was the depressive reaction I often have to seeing beautiful, old buildings and then finding out, by calling up their addresses on Google Maps, that they no longer exist. That's been very true for me - and, I'm sure, for more than a few other regular visitors here as well. But there's also a very personal upside for me, too, and I'd like to take this opportunity to mention it. I began studying my family's genealogy about two years ago and in trying to track down my Mother's New York City relatives, I've learned that in April of 1910 her then 16 year old Father was living with his parents and siblings at 512 W 125th St. I "went there" on Google Maps and discovered that the tenement they'd lived in was no longer standing. I shrugged my shoulders, moved on, and forgot about it - until I tripped over Shorpy earlier this year. This site's focus on (beautiful and cool) old buildings got me thinking about W 125th St. again and so I went back there today and had another look. While its certainly true that my family's tenement had long since disappeared, there were plenty of old buildings still standing in that area - and it dawned on me as I looked that my Grandfather, who'd died 15 years before I was born, had once looked at these same buildings and so did my Great Grandparents. Suddenly, the entire half-destroyed neighborhood took on a new meaning for me and I have to thank Dave - you know, the guy who wears white gloves and lives in a black box? - and his wonderful Shorpy-site for that new appreciation. Architectural history in both general and particular has come alive for me and has led me to new appreciations for what I had previously dismissed as irrelevant. I say this now because this current photo, "A Typical Group: 1910," was taken three months after the census that listed my Grandfather way up on W 125th. The guys in this picture would have been the same age as him - and for that reason both he and they come alive for me in a way that never would have been possible before. NaiveteI am charmed by the naivete in these boys' faces. See what a hundred years has done for us? I would be hard-pressed to cast a group of boys with this lack of "knowing" in present day. There were some very simple films but this was a time before the movies like we have today. Before television too. Just the books filled with great literature such as "Moby-Dick," etc., and the Bible and Torah of course. They yearned for and cherished books. Religious families rich or poor sat together and read together. My father did this at the time of this picture as a child. He passed the habit on to us children in the 1950s to the early 60s. [For the messenger boys and newsies of this era there were vaudeville and burlesque houses, the nickelodeon, gambling, "movies," tobacco and of course drugs and the red-light district as sources of diversion. Which isn't to say that the boys in our group portrait didn't all have library cards. Below, more Lewis Hine photos from 1910 and 1914. - Dave] Naive??It's today's kids who are naive -- the only vice most of them will ever see is on a video screen or newspaper page. But these boys who were growing up in New York in 1910, they saw it and lived it firsthand. This was the world of Hell's Kitchen, the Bowery, Damon Runyon. What a time it must have been! RefreshingSort of refreshing to see young men who kept their trousers pulled up. I bet even plumbers hadn't yet gained their reputation as crack workmen in 1910. "Nip it in the bud!"Front row left: It's Barney Fife before he was deputized! Shirts and ShirtwaistsI'd never seen the term "shirtwaist" used to refer to men's clothing, so I did a little research. In the 1897 Sears catalog all the men's shirts, from fancy dress shirts to laborer's shirts, were pullovers with a front placket so they buttoned only halfway down. Sears offered a few male shirtwaists (shirts with buttons all the way to the hem) but only for small boys. In the late teens Sears called button-to-the-hem shirts "negligee shirts" and by the '20s they are "coat style shirts." I don't understand, however, why Hine considered this sort of shirt superior to the standard pullover style of shirt. The collar isn't the issue -- it was possible to get pullover shirts with soft collars, and it looks like a few of these fellows are wearing detachable collars on their shirtwaists. Yet another minor Shorpy mystery. [Hine's point, as noted below, is that the boys don't have to wear coats as part of their summer uniform. - Dave] Woolworth's253 Broadway is where the Woolworth building is today. [253 Broadway is the Home Life Building. The Woolworth Building is 233 Broadway. - Dave] Working kidsIf this was one of the more menial jobs for children in New York, how come there are no black kids among them? Did the races not mix? I'm from England by the way. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, NYC)
The Sickly Newsie: 1910
... found selling papers in a big rainstorm today." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Hey Kid. The man on the left is the first ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/04/2013 - 9:08am -

June 1910. Philadelphia, Pa. "Michael McNelis, 8 years old, a newsboy. This boy has just recovered from his second attack of pneumonia. Was found selling papers in a big rainstorm today." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Hey Kid.The man on the left is the first branch salesman of the early Cellulose Sales Company previously pictured. At the end of the day a storm soaked Michael was able to unload his wet news pulp to Cellulose Sales. A win win. Do I really have to explain?Of course, the reason little Michael got sick in the first place was because he was standing outside every day selling those papers. He Got BetterAssuming he was the one born Sep 15, 1901, he grew up, went to war, was wounded but survived, married, and had a full life, dying in 1971. Shown on LeftWhat is the customer doing? Writing a check for two cents? Signing an autograph? Filling out a prescription for pneumonia medication? Taking information for the photo caption? Here's my card. I'm an attorney.The kindly gentleman is probably giving Michael his business card, encouraging him to sue that newspaper for making him stand outside in the rain. Of course, he's an independent contractor probably not subject to such an action, but "I'll only charge you if you win." And so it began. Is that Lewis Hines?Is that Lewis Hines, perhaps taking notes on the boy's name, while his assistant took this picture? Or perhaps vice versa? The Sickly Newsie: 1910This is Joe Manning, from the Lewis Hine Project. The man does not appear to be Lewis Hine. Sometimes Hine was accompanied by an investigator from the National Child Labor Committee. In this case, it was Edward F. Brown, and it's likely that the man was Brown. Please note that Mr. Hine does not have an "s" at the end of his name. That is a common mistake. LocationThe newsboy is at one of the four corners of Philadelphia's City Hall. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
The Tenement: 1905
... start. Now I know. (I wonder if anyone else got that). Lewis Hine must think everyone lives a wealthy life. This apartment looks clean ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/23/2012 - 3:40pm -

Circa 1905. "New York tenement." With a number of tiny inhabitants in evidence. Dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size. Typical catWon't hold still for a photo! Lord of the FliesSee the little black kitten in front of the stove? Hopefully he (she?) won't get a paw in either of the two sheets of flypaper, one on each table. Plenty of flies to keep Kitty entertained. The dressing tableNotice the hat pins, scent bottles and other such items on the dressing table. This tenement dweller did not leave home unadorned! Photo on shelfLooks like a National Guard Company group photo Not your typical tenementWhile we can't quite see through the window to the left of the oval bedroom mirror, it is evident from the amount of sunlight coming through that the window opens to the outside. It's a sign that this tenement is of higher quality (and rent) than most. Tenement bedroom windows usually opened onto narrow airshafts that admitted dim light and very little fresh air. Also, many tenement dwellers in 1910 would have been first-generation immigrants, mostly from southern or eastern Europe. If immigrants, the occupants of this tenement are at least knowledgeable enough in English to be reading an English-language newspaper. Again, if they're immigrants at all: the picture of soldiers looks like it could have been from the American Civil War, more than a generation in the past when this picture was taken. Basement catThe first known photo of Basement Cat emerging from the shadows. Tenement 1910Million-dollar condo 2010. Evening JournalThe New York Evening Journal was a daily (except Sunday) published by William Randolph Hearst from 1897 to 1909. The paper was sold in 1909 and ceased publication in 1911. Tenement MuseumIf any Shorpsters find themselves in NYC, they can visit the Tenement Museum and see a re-creation of a tenement much like this one. It is a fascinating place with, yes, some old photographs. It is on Orchard Street on the Lower East Side. RemodelThe disk high on the wall is a decorative cover used to plug an opening where an old flue pipe went through the wall, probably from a coal stove. Judging from the matching cover in the bedroom, the flue went horizontal for a while before heading up and out. The cover had spring clips on the back that snapped into the circular opening. Anyone make out what's in the mirror? Location, Location, LocationThe photo doesn't let us know where in NYC it is. 1910 tenements usually conjure an image of the Lower East Side, a neighborhood of immigrants. In this picture, which could be in Midtown, Yorkville or the Upper West Side or even Harlem, we have reasonable living quarters for 1910. The newspaper on the table appears to be in English. One picture on the wall show a Military unit, possibly a Spanish-American or Civil War Unit that a resident or relative served in. A tenement building was and is a way of life in many American Cities. Many remain in the poorer neighborhoods today, however the very upscale Upper East Side of Manhattan has them on almost every block east of Madison Avenue. A few are run down, but most are well kept and the monthly rents, where they are not controlled, are in the multiple thousands. The vacancy rate is around 1%. IronIt is faint in the photo, but it appears there is a flatiron leaning against the baseboard behind the corner of the stove. What is it?Can anyone tell me what the woven wooden object is that in propped up on the wall shelf? [A fan. - Dave] Home Sweet HomeAs somebody who lives in a 274-square-foot tenement from 1871 in the West Village, I find this photo wonderfully revealing. My home as been updated (in 1934), but still retains a lot of quirks. This shot is such a wonderful view into the personal lives of folks that lived in homes like my own. I can only imagine how warm the home must have been in the summertime with the cast iron stove and gas lighting. More photos like this please! The Evening Journal revisitedSince the old New York Journal-American was my late father's favorite newspaper, I'm going to have to quibble with Old Molly's history of the New York Evening Journal. The history account I found has William Randolph Hearst publishing both the morning American and the Evening Journal in New York from 1895 until they were combined in 1937 into the afternoon Journal-American, which continued as a Hearst publication until 1966, when it was merged with the old World-Telegram and Sun and the Herald-Tribune into the very short-lived World-Journal-Tribune. Love the Rohrshach tableclothNot about to divulge the things which popped into my imagination by that design along the bottom edge. Okay, one. I see a bearded gent with spectacles peering through an arbor. Another thought came to mind while examining the photos in the room. Which was the chance we just might come across a Shorpy photo hanging on the wall in another Shorpy photo. I'm too old to use the phrase "that would be so cool," but that would be apt. Quibble acceptedOld Molly agrees with the Tipster and stands corrected. Through mergers and various name changes, the paper survived until relatively recent years. Yarn swift The thing reflected in the mirror appears to be a yarn swift, or winder. The bag would be used to store it. Those are definitely flatirons (or, as they are known down here in the South, "sad irons," as it was a sad day when you had to use them because no matter the weather a lot of heat was involved). Great photo with lots of history which is somewhat lost except in museums or as one contributor pointed out a Tenement tour in New York. Stove Update A little Google research indicates my earlier thought the stove was a conversion may have been wrong. The Gem City Stove Company in Dayton, Ohio, produced a gas stove from the late 1800s up until the Depression known as the "Perfect." Boat modelTo the left of the doorway is a half-model of a boat hull with a centerboard. It's a technical rather than a decorative object and makes me suspect that someone in the tenement was a boatbuilder. It's definitely a well kept room and a superior tenement, but I bet that on a hot day it SMELLED. Basement CatI often wondered where Basement Cat got his start. Now I know. (I wonder if anyone else got that). Lewis Hinemust think everyone lives a wealthy life. This apartment looks clean and lovingly "decorated" to the best of the tenants' ability. I don't think it is all that bad!! [Perhaps, but this is not a Lewis Hine photo. And did anyone say it was bad? - Dave] The Gift of the MagiI have never felt closer to O. Henry than at this moment. Flash of memorywhen I noticed the wooden match holder next to the stove! Haven't seen one of those in a kitchen since the '50s. What are those pipes for?Does anyone know what use the pipes from above have? They might be a fire suppressant, but I am not sure. [The "pipes" are gas light fixtures. - Dave] Tenement DefinedIt's a little puzzling how the word "tenement" came to imply poverty or deprivation. I suppose the constant association by Lewis Hine and others of the word to their photographs of dire poverty would do the trick. Technically, the word tenement, as defined by New York City anyway, means any building that houses three or more unrelated families. The doorman buildings on Park Avenue are, by strict definition, tenements as well. GaslightDid one have to climb a ladder or stand on a high chair whenever they wanted to light the gas jets? PerfectI actually have an ad for this very oven - posted in a Dayton publication from 1904. It was placed by the Dayton Gas Light and Coke Company. COKE COKE COKE SMOKELESS FUEL Recommended by all Range and Furnace Manufacturers as being the cheapest, cleanest and most reliable fuel. Orders received at the Dayton Gas Light and Coke Co's Office etc. etc. Try and visitGeezerNYC submitted the comment that shorpsters can visit the Tenement Museum in NYC and see a recreation. In fact,you can enjoy an in depth online recreation and 360 degree walkthroughs of these wonderful tenements at http://www.tenement.org The site is dedicated to the stories of immigrants who lived in 97 Orchard Street, a tenement built in 1863 on Manhattan's Lower East Side. There are TONS of picture archives, a virtual tour, collections, first hand accounts of several families that lived there and LOTS more. I've visited it several times and I love it every time. I'm sure it is NOTHING like taking an actual walking tour of the tenement museum but it's as close as I can get for now. I suggest that everyone check this out. I'd also like to say that the comment such as how it had to have "smelled" in the heat of summer, etc. just bummed me out. So it may have smelled. so what. Many of these people struggled and busted their rear ends like no tomorrow just to get bread on the table and clean clothing to wear, to put shoes on their kids feet and on and on. We truly can't even begin to compare our lives today to the lives of the vast majority of those who lived in these tenements. They made the best of what they had. It was home. PipesThe pipes above the stove are gas pipes. Note the shut-off valves on the pipes. (The Gallery, DPC, Kitchens etc., NYC)
The Youngs: 1909
... two years ago to work in the mill." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. The Youngs: 1909 This is Joe Manning, of the ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/31/2011 - 10:59pm -

January 22, 1909. Tifton, Georgia. "Family working in the Tifton Cotton Mill. Mrs. A.J. Young works in mill and at home. Nell (oldest girl) alternates in mill with mother. Mammy (next girl) runs 2 sides. Mary (next) runs 1½ sides. Elic (oldest boy) works regularly. Eddie (next girl) helps in mill, sticks on bobbins. Four smallest children not working yet. The mother said she earns $4.50 a week and all the children earn $4.50 a week. Husband died and left her with 11 children. Two of them went off and got married. The family left the farm two years ago to work in the mill." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. The Youngs: 1909This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. For more than four years, I tried to identify the mother and children in this family...giving up, starting again, giving up, etc. I posted the photo on my website, hoping that someone would see it and know who this family was. On January 24, 2011, almost exactly 102 years since the date of this photo (January 22), I received the following email: “The family of Mrs. A.J. Young of Tifton, Ga. is a picture of my grandmother and great-grandmother's family. My mother knows more information.” Several hours later, I talked to both the writer of the email, and her mother, got a few more facts (they didn’t know a lot), and spent the rest of the day searching census and death records on the Internet. After eight more months of research, and interviews with numerous descendants, I have assembled the incredible story of this family, and I am close to posting the entire story on my website. I was able to track down the story of the mother, every child in the photograph, the two children who had recently married and are not in the photo, and the husband/father who had died. Exactly three months after Hine encountered this family, Mrs. Young, in desperation, placed the seven youngest children in an orphanage, and within several years, most had been adopted and lost contact with one another. One hundred years later, the descendants now know what happened to all of them. I’ll notify Shorpy when the story is posted. The commentary with all the Hine photosDave, I've always been curious of something. Are the comments on the backs of the pictures, or are they a separate document or journal? Its always the same brief details he provides regarding hours worked, wages, living conditions, as well as the numerous times he mentions a child laborer that he suspects is lying about his age in order to get a job. [The information was recorded on caption cards accompanying the photos. These pictures were commissioned by the National Child Labor Committee for its reports to Congress, which ran to thousands of pages. - Dave] A hard lifeMy mom's family did some sharecropping (cotton) while she was growing up in Dallas Georgia. This was in the 50s. From the stories she's told, everything associated with the cotton farming lifestyle was extremely hard. And it's funny this pic would be posted today, as just yesterday I finished reading the novel "A Painted House," by John Grisham. It goes into great detail about the lifestyles and hardships of cotton growers/sharecroppers/any and everything to do with the lifestyle. As I so often say here, we just don't know how good we have it today. Even something as simple as a Coca Cola was a luxury to these people. This is yet another heart-breaking photo here. GuinnessIt's a shame the old man died when he did. Looks like they were going for the record. 1909, Not such a good yearThe fact that most of the children wound up in an orphanage, where they were put up for adoption, shows that the family really did not survive. If you were dirt poor at the beginning of the 20th Century you didn't have a chance. The husband who had died, and I'm hypothesizing here, possibly died in a work accident, or from a disease that he couldn't afford to be properly treated for or just plain worked himself to death. [Or something like that. - Dave] Particulars of their timeSo, for curiosity's sake, when I viewed this photo I did a quick google search on Mrs. A. J. Young. There is another photo of Mr. Hine's that seems to appear very often online. While viewing it, I found it interesting and remarkable how eerily similar it was to the "1964 diner" photo posted here on Shorpy recently, the subjects faces.. so similar, but their expressions clearly mark the particulars of their time and experience. They almost appear as the same people experiencing two different realities. Great --More "lazy" people. The rest of the storyI cannot WAIT to receive the link to your article Joe Manning. Dave, if possible, it would be great if you wouldn't mind highlighting it in its own post so we catch it. What a fascinating, incredible story--and so heartbreaking. Imagine, just three months after this picture was taken, this family was shattered. Children sent to different homes, losing touch with their mother and siblings. Imagine the psychological trauma they all, especially Mom, went though. Trauma that likely was never discussed, but infiltrated their lives on a daily basis. I work in the field of health disparities and learned that individuals of low Socioeconomic Status (SES) have a different type of stress than their counterparts. This difference is incredibly displayed in the two pictures Nemesis Grey posted. There's chronic stress experienced only by low SES individuals (persistent, never ending stress that occurs when individuals are unable to obtain long-term security for the basic items required for survival), and intermediate stress experienced by mid- to high-SES individuals (stress with definite endpoints that at times, can even reap rewards, e.g. work deadlines, getting children to day care on time, and even sicknesses (since medical care is one less stress for those who are insured)). This is why Social Security was so popularThirty years later, the children that had to be placed into an orphanage, the family split up, were all voters. They remembered that event. The original purpose of Social Security was to support the indigent: the elderly, widows and their children. If each child had received a grant until the age of 18, the family would have been able to hold itself together. We truly have forgotten the grinding poverty of the early 20th Century. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Mrs A. J. Young probably have little idea of what happened to their family - or what it meant. The person I wonder about is Mrs. Young. What must breaking up her family have done to her! She looks to have been a proud and loving mother - look at the way her hands rest on the two youngest. Joe Manning, thank yyou for letting us know what happened to this family. All America should learn their story. A wish about to be granted?When I see pictures at Shorpy, I often wonder what might have happened to the people in them and wish I could learn more. Especially with shots like this one, I want to believe at least some of the kids might have gone on to better things and even happy lives. Now it appears we might get many of our questions answered, at least about this family. According to info at sevensteeples (Joe Manning's site), the kids in this pic are (L to R) Mell, Mattie, Mary, Alex, Eddie Lou, Elzy, Seaborn, Elizabeth and Jesse (boy). Birth controlPeople seem to think that people had a choice about whether or not they had children. They didn't. Birth control wasn't an option for just about anyone in those days, even the wealthy. And the wealthy had the luxury of having separate bedrooms. Sure they could abstain (abstention being the modern rockinghorse of those who seem to things that marital relations are a prerogative of those with money). Humans have the sincere (and often vain) hope that eventually life would improve. There was also the hope that some of the children would survive to adulthood and eventually take care of their parents. OrphanagesOrphanages were not only for children to be adopted. Many orphanages were places where children could be placed until the parent, more often a widowed mother, could place their child until she found her footing. My half-brother and sister were placed in an orphanage several times during their childhood when their mother couldn't financially cope and my (by then estranged) father was unable or unwilling to support them. I thank my lucky stars MY mother always had steady work. FascinatingGreat work, Dave. The comments here, all 1,000 or so words, are worthy of the picture. History lives. The Youngs: 1909My mother picked cotton and also worked as a migrant worker in California when she was a teenager. She and my grandmother always said cotton was the worst--backbreaking labor and bolls that ripped inexperienced hands to shreds. I grew up with very little economically, but thank God I was taught to be grateful for everything I had and for the time in which I was born. I wonder how many of us could currently survive those times and circumstances and with so much courage and grace? I look forward to hearing the rest of the story. As a mother and grandmother, I can only try to imagine the depth of Mrs. Jones' sorrow. What incredible love and amazing strength she demonstrated when she allowed her babies to have second chances at better lives. Truly a remarkable human being. DesperationIt breaks my heart to think that this woman was in such a desperate situation that she had to give up her beautiful children. The little guy with his hands in his pockets especially touches my heart! The same situation faced many parents in Romania, only 20 years ago. The German social worker in charge of adoptions in the area we were living in at the time told us that she was planning a trip to take some of the Americans on our base to find children to adopt from a Romanian orphanage. We didn't end up going, but others from our base did. They had gone thinking that any child who was in an orphanage would be free for adoption, but that was not the case. Many of the parents of the children had put them there out of desperation, but hoped to one day be able to take them home. Things did eventually improve in Romania so, hopefully, most of those parents were able to take back their children. I'm so sorry that Mrs. Young did not have that opportunity. Related to the YoungsFor both its words and its pictures, James Agee's and Walker Evans's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" (1940) is a classic. But there are also two "Where are they now?" sequels to this book about three poor families living in the cotton economy of the Depression-era South. One is Howell Raines's article "Let Us Now Revisit Famous Folk" in the New York Times Magazine, May 25, 1980; the other is Dale Maharidge's and Michael Williamson's book "And Their Children After Them: The Legacy of 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men': James Agee, Walker Evans, and the Rise and Fall of Cotton in the South" (Pantheon, 1989). Good luck trying to see the photographs that accompany Raines's article, though. They've been deleted from the online version for copyright reasons, the paper originals are mostly gone now, and (in my library, at least) the microfilm copy is fast deteriorating. If you want one more example of the tragedy of current copyright law, there it is. [If you look up the Raines article using ProQuest, you can see the photos in Page View. - Dave] Desperation & OrphanagesQuite right! In these days, we don't see this type of orphanage in the US (or really, any at all.) But in many countries, they are still State run board-and-care homes for families experiencing hard times. Only those children whose parents have given up their rights (or had them removed judicially) are available for adoption. We adopted two little girls from a Russian home in 1998 and 1999 (where all the children had received excellent care and attention, BTW.) Noelani mentions the one little boy in particular. It is truly heart-breaking to visit an orphanage like ours, and not be able to bring home ALL of them! We have a photo of three beautiful, smiling little boys, maybe 8-9 years old, in baseball cap, in a line with arms about each other. Could have been any home-grown group of pals, much like some of Hine's newsboys here on Shorpy. The Youngs: 1909. Entire story complete. This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. My entire, often heartbreaking, story of this family is posted. Three months after this photo was taken, the seven youngest children went to an orphanage, and the family was never reunited. The story includes all five Hine photos of the family, individual stories of Mrs. Young, all nine of her children in the photo, and even the two children who "went off and got married." There are interviews with numerous descendants, dozens of photographs of family members at various ages, and information about Tifton Cotton Mills and child labor in Georgia in the early 1900s. Go to: http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/12/29/catherine-young-family/ SpeechlessOnce again, Mr. Manning, you have left me speechless. All I can say, is a very inadequate "thank you". Thanks Joe ManningJoe, your research and moving story of the Young family should be required reading for all Americans (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Facebook: 1909
... have been there one year or more." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. For Comparison It's almost like a scene out of ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/23/2009 - 8:17pm -

January 1909. Tifton, Georgia. "Workers in the Tifton Cotton Mills. All these children were working or helping, 125 in all. Some of the smallest have been there one year or more." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. For ComparisonIt's almost like a scene out of a Little Rascals movie -- the pudgy boy on the left in the suit and cap, tossing a football, and looking every inch the boss's kid. A mean, spoiled bully, ready at all times to taunt and victimize the little poor kids working at daddy's mill. My imagination worketh overtime. Hine's WayLewis Hine seems to have been unusually good at quickly establishing rapport with many of his subjects. Here's yet another of his photos in which many of those posing are reacting with genuine laughter and surprise as they look straight at the lens, full of life. He must have made some spot-on quip that quickened the crowd, not just "Say cheese," or "Watch the birdie," and from the facial expressions and body language of many in the photo, whatever he said must have been a zinger. For sureI am in the front row in the raggedy plaid dress with messy hair. And I would be wishing I were the very pretty girl behind me to my left with her hand on her hip. I'm sure she was the most popular. My mother, father, and sister are there too. LintyAt first I thought it was just weird negatives -- but it's those threads and fabric fibers all over them. They look so ragged, but happy, too. Or at least amused by the photographer. All those bare feet. Some tough kids!I live in the South, we have some of the nastiest cockleburrs that I swear will go to the bone. DichotomyAll those smiling faces. All those bare feet. It's meHere's a question: Who in the photo reminds you of yourself? I would be the little girl in the front row center with a white dress and folded hands. For laughsI suspect the giggling was caused by one or two young wits being photographed. For instance, see the boy at far left with his mouth covered, and some of the eyes mirthfully looking his way. Another delightful Shorpy depiction of the human urge to enjoy living with what you have. Just imagine someone decades from now bemoaning how bad those people had it back in 2009. Or not, who knows what cycles lie ahead? Good and badStarting with the shy girl hiding behind her hands, I absolutely love the expressions on the 6 kids in the front row: the smiling girl to her left; the other smiling girl with her hair swept up, and the two girls next to her, all looking in the same direction; the squinting boy with the impish grin on his face. Part of me is amazed they could smile having to work in a cotton mill, though it probably wasn't as Dickensian as I remember from my history books. And so many are barefoot. I'm such a wimp, I don't like walking barefoot across my hardwood floors. Barefoot, Charles Dickens and MeShoes were a luxury to many families in that place and time. Since kids grew so fast, families couldn't afford to keep 'em in shoes. Feet can get pretty tough if you don't wear shoes. (Maybe not cockleburr tough, but that would be incentive to keep the burrs cleared away.) I betcha the three or four girls with their hands covering their mouths are doing so because Mr. Hine made them laugh and they were covering up their bad teeth. Best I can figure is that the textile factory conditions then were pretty darned Dickensian, given a few decades of slow progress and the lack of a cruel English class system. The boy leaning forward on his elbows, just above the "bully," is me, more or less. Windows 1909Notice those whitewashed windows? Can't have employees getting distracted by the view outside! These kids today...One cannot help but compare these selfless and hard-working children with some of the more indulged kids walking around today loaded down with cell phones, pocket video games, name brand clothes, bling, stylin' expensive haircuts, blue water bottles, etc. These youngsters (pictured) did what they had to do to help their families and accepted it, as seen by their "just do it" attitudes and lack of selfishness, greed, "gimmees" or self-pity. I know they had no choice but still, their willingness to sacrifice their childhoods, as needed, is very touching. There is absolutely no sense of entitlement exhibited by any of them; some even look proud and confident. This was my father's era and he always kept those qualities and always was happy. Mystifying, isn't it? That's me, too.With a smile that's almost a grimace from looking into the sun. That's me in every picture when I was a kid. That GirlTake a look on that girl on the far right. Seems to me she's blond with straight hair. Folks, I would say I could be in love for her if I was born on that time and working on that factory. The whole photo is amazing and with lots of interesting things to looking at. But, was that girl who made me spent more than 10 min thinking about my life. Two Familiar Faces!The two young girls in the front row - one in plaid dress, and the one on her right in light-colored dress, are featured (close up) in another photo you posted some time back. Great smiles! Back rowI'm intrigued by the people who hung back there in the very back row...and on the right, there are either two jokesters or a couple of giants! On the left handrailThat looks like a bobbin of yarn to me. I bet that is the product this department was making. Grace & dignityThe clothes are stained & torn. You know they didn't have much. Yet look at the adult women -- most are neatly dressed with well groomed hair. Can you imagine how hard those women's lives were in days of no birth control, large families, cooking & cleaning with no conveniences? WOW. Can't stop lookingI discovered Hine's photos yesterday afternoon (Friday 06.11.09) and kept search and scrolling and reading and reflecting till 2 a.m., then woke up at 6 this morning to continue. Each face has a story just like I have a story. How many felt that no one would ever think of them once they had gone? How many thought their lives unimportant or dull, which now to me seem so intriguing? (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Al and Joe: 1911
... work in Mr. Baker's room. Indian Orchard Mill." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Four-legged transportation It is just ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/31/2023 - 7:11pm -

September 1911. Indian Orchard, Massachusetts. "Alfred Gengreau, 20 Beaudry Street; Joseph Miner, 15 Water Street. Both work in Mr. Baker's room. Indian Orchard Mill." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Four-legged transportationIt is just fascinating to see horses in the street instead of cars. I'd rather hear clopping horses than hear horns and watch the depressing sight of cars bumper to bumper on a freeway. horses on streetThey still have those in Beijing China, though they are banned from the central core, they still get sneaked in at night. Believe me, horses are messy and inefficient. Projections in the late 1890s were that the manure (which not only piled up everywhere but dried and became airborne, spreading disease) would become such a problem in 20 years that the cities would become impassible. Bicycles, now, that's a much better solution. BicyclesOf course the drays in these old pictures are hauling freight, not people. Here we see a street cleaner (bottom left corner) getting rid of the "emissions." (The Gallery, Factories, Horses, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Morris Levine: 1916
... 50 cents Sundays and 30 cents other days." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. What Hine captures in a photo. The looks on ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/21/2010 - 12:28pm -

Dec. 17, 1916. Burlington, Vermont. "Morris Levine, 212 Park Street. 11 years old and sells papers every day -- been selling five years. Makes 50 cents Sundays and 30 cents other days." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. What Hine captures in a photo.The looks on the faces in all of the Hine pics I've seen on Shorpy really tell the kids' tales, be they happy or sad. "Bumpus"I found some info thru ancestry.com that may be about this Morris Levine. Morris appears on 1920 Census for Burlington, Chittenden, Vermont. He was born in New York about 1906. His parents were from Russia. He had several siblings. One brother was Hyman. Their language is given as "Hebrew." Morris & Hyman appear in the 1925 Burlington High School yearbook. Morris is listed as a quondam (former) member. Hyman is a senior. Hyman's yearbook photo caption: "'Bumpus' is a good all-around fellow. He captained our football team through a successful season and proved himself one of 'Old Edmunds' greatest football stars. It is said through the St. Albans game he started attending our dances. The girls are sorry you waited so long, 'Bumpus.'" It lists their address as 212 Park Street. Morris Levine: NewsboyThis is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. I spent a good two hours yesterday following a somewhat different trail than the previous commenter did. It finally led me to a nice conversation last evening with a very surprised nephew of Morris. I emailed him the photo and plan to interview him soon. Hyman, his father, became a doctor. More later. Why the interest?Why all the interest in this photo -- and of Morris? I am the daughter-in-law of Bump. God Bless You, MorrisWherever you are. An old paper boy speaks. Well, for 1916, $5.20 a month for an eleven year old wasn't something a family could refuse, no matter the heat or cold! Morris LevineThis is Joe Manning again. You can see my story about Morris at: http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2015/01/01/morris-levine/ (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Movies)
Maritime Mystery: 1909
... We see the words SINKING and IN FOG. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Ship Sunk In Crash, The Other Beached The ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/20/2012 - 2:26am -

March 1909. Bridgeport, Connecticut. "7 P.M. -- Boys selling papers at the depot. Smallest one has been selling for eight years." The headlines: We see the words SINKING and IN FOG. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Ship Sunk In Crash, The Other BeachedThe headlines are reporting the collision of two coastal steamers off Cape Cod on March 10, 1909, in heavy early morning fog. Although one ship sank and the other was beached, no lives were lost. The New York Times ran the story on March 11. As for the chipper newsboy second from left, maybe he grew into those ears later on. That Sinking FeelingOn March 10, 1909, the H.F. Dimock, bound from New York to Boston, and the coastwise steamer Horatio Hall of the Maine Steamship Company collided in the eastern Vineyard Sound shortly after 8 a.m. while sailing at half speed in a heavy fog. The accident occurred in Pollock Rip Slue, not far from where the H.F. Dimock had collided with the Alva in 1892. Captain John A. Thompson of the H.F. Dimock brough his vessel alongside the Horatio Hall so that the latter's five passengers could be transferred. The Horatio Hall sank at the edge of the channel. Most of her crew left in lifeboats and were picked up by the H.F. Dimock, but Captain W. Frank Jewell, the pilot, first mate, and two seamen remained in the pilot house, which remained a few feet above water. (They were picked up later.) The H.F. Dimock left the scene at 11:15 a.m. and sailed slowly toward Orleans Life-Saving Station, where she was beached. The passengers and crew were removed by the lifesavers under Captain James H. Charles. Moderately damaged, the H.F. Dimock was later hauled off the beach and towed to shipyard for repairs. Cape Cod CollisionLooks like it's this one : http://www.capecodtoday.com/news/CC-History/2012/03/10/1909- two-steamers-collide-in-pollock-rip http://www.wreckhunter.net/DataPages/horatiohall-dat.htm Why are they different?The three in the front are wearing knickers, no neckties, and are holding newspapers; the three in the back are wearing long pants and neckties, and do not appear to have papers. While age is the difference, could it have been more than that? Did the older boys sell to a different customer, the riders, needing a more formal approach, while the youngers sold to the yard workers and such? Or was it first class vs coach? Mystery Solved?Sounds like this could be a possible candidate for the sinking and fog incident: New York Times, March 11, 1909 Ship Sunk In Crash, The Other Beached Horatio Hall and H.F. Dimock Collide In the Fog Near Pollock Rip CHATHAM, Mass., March 10 — Blanketed by a dense fog and proceeding at half speed, the coastwise steamer of the Maine Steamship Company, the Horatio Hall, Portland for New York, and the H. F. Dimock of the Metropolitan Line, New York for Boston, met in the middle of the narrow channel known as Pollock Rip Slue today with a crash that sent the Hall to the bottom within half an hour and caused the Dimock to run ashore six hours later on Cape Cod Beach, where the passengers and crew of the Hall were landed without loss of life. Horatio Hall, H.F. DimockThese newsboys were likely hawking their March 10, 1909 evening editions that were headlining the crash of the Horatio Hall and the H.F. Dimock in dense fog off the southeastern coast of Cape Cod,. The collision happened at 8 that morning and the Horatio Hall went to the bottom with no loss of life. Sources: Nashua Telegraph, March 10, 1909 and the Lewiston Journal, March 11, 1909 March 10, 1909The H.F. Dimock collided with the Horatio Hall off of Cape Cod in dense fog. The Horatio Hall is a marked dive spot at Pollock Rip. More here. R.I.P. Horatio HallFrom the Cape Dive Club website: Site Name: Horatio Hall Type of Vessel: Passenger/Freighter Dimensions: 296’ x 46’ x 17’ Tonnage: 3168 Built: 1898 Sank: March 10, 1909 Cause of Sinking: Collision with the H.F. Dimock Location: Pollock Rip Summary: The Horatio Hall was carrying approximately 45 passengers and crew and a general cargo that included paper, sheepskins, potatoes, scrap brass, and cloth worth about $100,000. The Hall was traveling from Portland, Maine to New York City during heavy fog when the Dimock struck it. The Dimock collided into the port side of the Horatio Halls hull penetrating fifteen to twenty feet. The Dimock saw that it might be able to save passengers, so it continued to push the Hall towards the shoal and it allowed for the passengers to jump from the Hall to the Dimock to be rescued. There was no loss of life. Since the hurricane deck of the Hall remained above the water once the boat settled, much of the Hall was salvaged before it was cleared with explosives. 3-10-09Two Steamers Collide in Pollock Rip. Horatio HallGoogle searching suggests it could it have been the Horatio Hall. I bet it was the H.F. DimockShe went down after colliding with the the steamer Horatio Hall in dense fog off Chatham, Mass., on March 10, 1909. [It was the Horatio Hall that sank. The Dimock was beached. - Dave] Skeleton Coast Partially covered headline ending in "TON" could be "Skeleton". On September 5th 1909 the Eduard Bohlen sank off the Skeleton Coast in a heavy fog. Or I'm wrong. [I suspect that's COLLISION, not "Skeleton." - Dave] What,Me worry? GrowingI'm not sure if the fella with the jug ears ever grew into them or later became known as "Kilroy". I'm wondering if the young man in the middle ever grew into his coat. Lewis Hine book outI don't know if it's been mentioned, but there's a new biography of Lewis Hine out by Alison Nordstrom and Elizabeth McCausland. The BBC produced a piece on the book and Hine today, which can be seen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17673213 Note: the article contains a video. H.F. Dimock was prone to accidentsH.F. Dimock had a very checkered seagoing career with many accidents recorded; both groundings and sinkings (after which she was subsequently raised and repaired.) Her name appears often in books about wrecks and collisions in the waters in and around New York during the early part of the 20th century. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Avondale Mill Boys: 1910
... in Pell City.) Smallest boy is John Tidwell ." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Avondale Mills The mill that burned today was ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/01/2023 - 12:54pm -

November 1910. "Birmingham, Alabama. 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. Avondale MillsThe 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] Shoes...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. (The Gallery, Birmingham, Factories, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Brother Red: 1915
... 'Red.' Tough specimen of Los Angeles newsboys." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Ancylostoma Those boys were a hookworm ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 10/12/2013 - 4:00pm -

May 1915. "Nine-year-old newsie and his 7-year-old brother 'Red.' Tough specimen of Los Angeles newsboys." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Ancylostoma Those boys were a hookworm infection waiting to happen. From the lens of HineThose have to be two of the most haunting faces I think I've ever seen in the Hine files. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Los Angeles)
Shorpy Higginbotham: 1910
... run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Shorpy story The story about this boy makes me ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/14/2022 - 3:03pm -

December 1910. "Shorpy Higginbotham, a 'greaser' on the tipple at Bessie Mine, of the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co. in Alabama. Said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. Carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Shorpy storyThe story about this boy makes me so sad. The photo is so strong. Esthetically - wonderful - artistic movie like. Thanks for sharing it with all of us. Tamara Razov. His armsThose are the roughest part--it appears that they're rather permanently in that position. Notice His Hands...You can tell Shorpy worked very hard. His hands look like the hands of a 40 year old man, not a 14 year old boy. His arms do appear to be permanently bowed out and his shoulders are sloped from carrying the heavy buckets. How we could ever have gotten to this point in our society is beyond me. Thank goodness for the progressive people back then who put a stop to such practices and gave kids like Shorpy their childhoods. omg. after seeing theseomg. after seeing these pictures, its so hard to believe how far we have gone and what todays world is like compared to back then. The question is, what would they think if they saw what the world was like today and how people are living?! (perfect example, we now have cars that drive for us!!!) Shorpy and child laborThe pictures were taken only 30 years before I was born. When I was 14 I needed a State of California Work Permit in order to get a summer job (picking cotton). We could quit school at 16. I didn't do that but many did. Thank God for the reformers in the early 20th century! "The golf links lie so near the mill that almost every day, the working children can look out and watch the men at play." Don Lest we forgetIt is easy to forget from the perspective of our comfortable North American lifestyles that in many places in the world, child labor still runs rampant, not because families want their children to work endless hours in deplorable conditions, but because their very existence depends on the meager income the children earn. Let's not become too complacent and self-satisfied that we've "progressed" beyond the conditions of the early 20th century until we've globally eradicated those same conditions that continue to exist today. picture from a greaser kid... ... cause of his size he was able to easily go inside all the mechanics stuff.. they see it as a game... some great technologics developments were the outcome of that work-players boys... thats the good one... the bad one is that some of them never play again... So great wonder!Really I'm so scare about you beautiful eye-moment, serious, I think in a lot of stuff's, that amazing like a time capsule... Don't have the exactly words for tell you my reasons... make my day theses snaps. I hope back soon. Carlos "Cx" Shorpy's contemporariesA ten-year-old working in the mines was not unusual. My grandfather was born in 1896 and started in the mines at age ten. He worked for Tennessee Coal and Iron in Jefferson County, Alabama. After his back was broke in a mine accident and suffering from years of black-lung he lived to 84. This was before welfareAmerica is still the greatest place in the world to give. I have traveled to a lot of countries. Yes, they have their pluses, but even the poorest americans live better than 99% of the worlds population. Shorpy HigginbothamI wonder if anyone knows where Shorpy Higginbotham's grandfather, Robert Higginbotham, is buried. Robert Higginbotham is my Great Great Grandfather. Kenny Brown twotreesklb@aol.com Shorpy, descendant of Revolutionary War SoldierShorpy was my father's (Roy Higginbotham's) uncle, a younger brother of my grandfather, John W. Dolphus Higginbotham. Their ancestor Robert Higginbotham was a Revolutionary War soldier who fought in the Battle of King's Mountain. He died in Huntsville, Alabama, where he farmed for many years. He is buried on his farm and the Huntsville D.A.R. had a ceremony a few years ago at his grave site. There is another Robert B. Higginbotham (also a descendant of Robt. Sr.), buried in Remlap, Alabama, I think, but I don't recall him having an intact headstone. [P.H., thanks for the information. You have a fascinating family history. - Ken] ShorpyI found him, he is one of my cousins. Henry Sharp Higginbotham b 23 Nov 1896 d. 25 jan 1928, son of Felix Milton Higginbotham and Mary Jane Graham. We descend from the Amherst Co. Virginia Higginbothams. my line was Benjamin Higginbotham who m. Elizabeth Graves and d. 1791 in Elbert Co. GA. Then his son Francis Higgginbotham m. Dolly Gatewood. When they were in old age they moved with with their sons to the new Louisiana Territory, E. Feliciana Parish. My gggfather was Caleb Higginbotham and gggmother was Minerva Ann Bryant of the Manakintown, VA hugenot BRIANT. All the Higginbothams and Bryant sons fought in the Rev. War. My gggg William Guerant Bryant and his brother John, his father, James and Uncle Isaac and Isaac's son James and His Uncle Thomas were all in the battle of Guilford Court House NC 25 Mar 1781. Thomas was killed and Isaac wounded in the head. Bessie Mine?One of the first posters said that Bessie Mine may still be operational. Is that true? When I look it up online, nothing much comes up. I'd love to see some more pictures of the mine, though, and learn a little more about it! Bessie MineBessie Mine appears to be closed. Information available online shows that the current owner, US Pipe, has filed an application to use the area as a landfill. My grandfather worked at Bessie and other mines in west Jefferson County. He would have been about Shorpy's age but didn't start to work there until he was 18 or so. After a couple of years working in the pits, he was able to get a position tending the generators and never had to work underground again. Then and NowI don't want to go back to the "good old days." But everybody should "work" at least a few days (e.g. move a lot of force through a lot of distance all day while either sweating or freezing, dirty, dog-tired, with something aching). Maybe a kid who did some of this stuff will better appreciate the real things in life rather than Britney, American Idol, text messaging, and Fifty-Cent rap. I'm glad i did - but not too much! In my younger days, I harvested tobacco, hauled hay, milked cows, moved gravel from a creek bed to the barnyard in a mule wagon, picked potatoes behind a mule plow, budded peach seedlings and harvested nursery stock on cold rainy January days. These are cherished memories working with my kinfolk on their farms. I'm glad I did it! I've rolled cement up a hill in a wheelbarrow and finished it, framed and built buildings, plumbed and wired, and swapped greasy motors in cars. It all pays off as I can save money as a do-it-yourselfer. And it paid off as an incentive to study and go to college so I didn't have to do it for a living! Looking at these pictures, I don't feel sorry for the people in them as I don't think they knew how "bad off" they were. So they were not! However, I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for our hard-working ancestors, my aunts and uncles, and cousins. Roy HigginbothamWas your father the Roy Higginbotham who was principal of Minor Elementary School in the 60's and 70's? martyshoemaker@hotmail.com Bessie Mine Locationhttp://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=33.657286~-87.03305... Clyde Donald HiggI am also related to the Higg from Va, and also the ones from Ireland. I just loved this about Shorpy Higg. I am still trying to locate more information on the Higg from Ind. where my father was from, his father was Luther, and his father was George. My father's name was Clyde Donald Higg. cindykpiper@aol.com [So you mean Higg, or Higginbotham? - Dave] Feel sorry for us!>> Looking at these pictures, I don't feel sorry for the people in them as I don't think they knew how "bad off" they were. I don't feel sorry for them either. I feel sorry for us, the younger generations. We have no idea what real, consistent hard work is. With the way things are going I desperately want to know someone who has lived the hard life, maybe lived through the Depression but no one is around to glean from. I just turned 33 years old but I see the wisdom in searching out the generation. I have even written my husbands Grandmother for advice but she is too busy to share her knowledge. I don't wish evil for our great country but it might do us some good to have to experience hardship to get our act together. For me, I grew up without hot water, sometimes the electric was shut off, rarely a car and I can tell many a story about cleaning clothes in a wringer washer in the middle of Missouri's wicked winter temps - outside at that. But I still know I have so much more to learn. Roy Higginbotham>> Was your father the Roy Higginbotham who was principal of Minor Elementary School in the 60's and 70's? That particular Roy Higginbotham was not my father, although I had heard about him from my cousins who still lived in the area. No doubt he is related in some way. My father (Roy) was also a coal miner in his younger days like his father and uncles. He died in 1961 at the age of 46. I remember my grandfather John talking about his brother "Sharpe" and how someone "took his picture" when he was a young boy working in the mines. Sorry it took so long for me to reply. Bessie MineI live a few blocks from the mine. It was just off Rt 150 in Bessemer. The mine complex was left intact and abandoned since the 1950's until the buildings were cleared in 2009. I did photograph it before it was destroyed. Happy Birthday Shorpy!Thank you for diligently updating and uploading. I know it takes a lot of time to run a website like this, and I for one am grateful for your efforts, Dave. Thank you! Shorpy Higginbotham: 1910This is Joe Manning, of the Lewis Hine Project. For those who have not seen it, here is my story of Henry Sharp Higginbotham. http://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/11/26/henry-s-higginbotham-page-on... Happy Birthday, Shorpy.com!I've been visiting since day one, so what else can I say? I love this site! Keep up the great work! Daily DoseHappy Birthday Shorpy! You are a part of my daily ritual since you began and I look forward to checking this site as often as time permits. I've learned a great deal since you began these wonderful posts. Thanks gang, and many more! My 2 cents worthI'm just a pup here, having only been on board for a year and a half. Thank you Dave, Ken, tterrace and all who do such a great job on this site. To all the Shorpyites who add so much extra via comments, links and other added information, you all get a big "Attaboy". Thanks to one and all. Happy birthday! Thanks for a Great Five YearsYour very skilled and hard work, along with your thoughtful selection of the right moments from the past is greatly appreciated, Thank You! George Widman A treat each and every dayA great website that really is quite a treat each day,and I never can wait until another post,and the comments are always entertaining. Thank you for 5 years of hard work. I know I used to blog and I know it's something you dedicate yourself to. The best photo blogI'm so glad you've kept it going. Yours is the best one out there. I enjoy how your selection of photographs cover the gamut. They may be from a particular era but not from a particular style or emotion. RemindersThanks to you all for these incredible photos--wonderful work! Some remind me of my own childhood in the south and I have photos, too. My grandmother worked in a textile mill when she was 12, around 1912, never had much schooling, and married at 16. She told me stories of the Depression, when she had 6 children to raise by herself. A wonderful person who was a huge presence in my life, esp when my mother died in 1948, poor and in ill health. In 1955, my first job was at the five and dime at age 14 on Fri night and all day Sat for a grand total of $4.50. Thank you again for the reminders of how it used to be, although I wouldn't want to repeat history. Thanks!Thank you Shorpy and thank you shorpy.com Fast Math"photographed by Lewis Hine 117 years ago" 107 plus 10 years of blogging, er, fast-forwarding gets you 117. Still the best site on the web. Shorpy is my Great UncleHi my name is Timothy Williams, great grandson of Joseph James Williams, who was husband of Susie Higginbotham-Williams, sister of Henry Sharp "Shorpy" Higginbotham. Oddly as it may sound; although, probably not shocking, I think my family might have married into the Higginbotham's more than once. My father was a Williams and my mother was a Higginbotham too. Anyways, It is my honor to share this with you all and I am happy to have found this website and I am so happy to look upon these pictures of one of my family members. I am proud to know he is my kin. While I am not a historian, I have majored in enough history classes, that I could probably teach it at some level. My family ancestry dates back to England and Scotland. I have a Robert B Higginbotham in my family that the Daughters of Revolution, found a grave marker years ago. He was a Revolutionary War hero. I don't know how they would be related, even if they are. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28768283/robert-higginbotham (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine, Mining)
Picket Fences: 1911
August 1911. New Bedford, Mass. "Lewis Grace, 68 Acushnet Avenue. Probably 14. Works in drawing-in room." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Lewis This kid almost looks prosperous. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 08/15/2012 - 9:42am -

August 1911. New Bedford, Mass. "Lewis Grace, 68 Acushnet Avenue. Probably 14. Works in drawing-in room." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. LewisThis kid almost looks prosperous. Berkshire HathawayThat is the original Hathaway Manufacturing Company of New Bedford, which became Berkshire Hathaway, which was eventually purchased by Warren Buffett and became an investment vehicle propelling the stock from roughly $16 a share to over $150,000 (now back down to $100,000). AcushnetAcushnet Mill on Acushnet Avenue. Is this the same company that makes Titleist brand golf equipment? (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
The Fields Family: 1911
... smallest children not in photo." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Hine and Evans I will never stop admiring and ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 05/11/2008 - 4:26am -

May 1911. Fries, Virginia. "T.J. Fields and family. Work at Washington Cotton Mills. The father cards, two girls spin, boy on right end picks up bobbins. Been working a year or two. Mother and smallest children not in photo." Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Hine and EvansI will never stop admiring and wondering at the foresight of photographers who so carefully recorded what no one else wanted to see. I remember reading Walker Evans's qualms about "parading" the misery and want of the impoverished people he saw while doing the "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" with Agee. But it was visionary to recognize that they and the others were seeing history that would be of such value, and showing America parts of itself it never really knew. What We SawThe pictures here on Shorpy were taken mainly by professional photographers that were historians, whether they knew it or not. Some, like Hine, were crusaders out to prove a point. Much of this was from the beginning of the 20th Century. Many of the later photos, of the depression era, were made by people in government employ who probably knew they were recording the history of some terrible times. The rest of us went to the movies and saw the America that many of us wished we lived in. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
[1]23…next ›last »
Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.