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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)
The Boys of Bridgeton: 1909
... in the middle is Harry Simpkins. The photograph is by Lewis Wickes Hine , who described the work conditions as, "dirty, noisome." November ... 
 
Posted by Ken - 07/24/2012 - 7:00pm -

Workers at the More-Jones Glass Co. in Bridgeton, N.J. Small boy in the middle is Harry Simpkins. The photograph is by Lewis Wickes Hine, who described the work conditions as, "dirty, noisome." November 1909. View full size. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Window Dressing: 1941
... We've come a far piece in our quest for comfort. Lewis Wickes Hine According to Wikipedia Hine died Nov. 1940 - so I wonder if this ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/07/2013 - 11:40am -

October 1941. "Dressing window in Amsterdam, New York." The art of auto parts and accessories. Photo by John Collier. View full size. Rubber fan bladesMy 1947 KB-1 pickup had one of those fans mounted on the dash. It had rubber blades but no cage around them. Better buy those tireswhile you can get them. Rationing is on the way. I wish I had a set with those "pie-crust" sidewalls for my '48 pickup. You WantMe to put what where!? HeatersI wonder if the two objects with the semicircle doors are aftermarket heaters. It's hard to imagine a car that doesn't come with a heater, but those were different times. Montgomery WardMy hometown Wards was on East Main St., downtown Amsterdam. A one time successful department store and at its height, was one of the largest retailers in the United States. Now just an online retailer with no physical stores. Here is a photo of the large bygone Wards in Menands near Albany, NY (just 30 miles east of Amsterdam) which is now office space. Dresser's dressingThere's an old stereotype of window dressers as swells and dandies, but somehow I don't think the plaid-shirt-and-tweed-slacks combination qualifies. Not just for old menI take it wingtips were the rage in 1941. Both guys are wearing them, despite their difference in age. Heaters!nixiebunny, you are correct. Another popular brand was HaDees with a long a sound. Great name for a heater I think! The model I found isn't exact, but it's close. ShoesLike the gentlemen here my dad always wore wingtips and I still wear them today. Yes most of the stores still sell them and I have never had a problem getting them even at Wal-Mart. Tire RationingA couple of months hence, and I doubt this window display would have featured tires on sale, as tires began to be rationed on December 30, 1941. Good ol' Monkey-WardSears' chief rival for many years, Montgomery Ward competed in both catalogue and brick-and-mortar retailing, though insofar as I know, they never sold cars -- Sears sold a Henry J badged as an Allstate in the early '50s, and buggy cars in the early years of the 20th Century. Alas, now reposing in that commercial Valhalla wherein Grant's, Woolworth's and many others must abide. Speaker-shaped itemsWhat are the two items flanking the guy in the window? They look like some sort of turntable but they're on their sides. [After-market heaters. See earlier comment. -tterrace] A different world, indeed.Tire repair kits? Little fans? Huge 6-volt batteries? Whoa! This was modern technologyLooking at those huge spark plugs, I wonder how much they sold for. When I tune a vehicle, the correct spark plugs (platinum or iridium) sell for $20.00 each. HEMI engines take 16 spark plugs, and they need to be replaced every 30000 miles. These are copper core plugs, must cheaper, but 16 times $4.00 is still a lot. These monster plugs were probably cleaned and gapped every 10000 miles, extending their life several times. This was in the day when you accepted that old Bessie won't start on the first try. You might have to wedge a stick in the choke to correct a flooded engine. Valve jobs every 20000 miles were the norm. Service work on vehicles today is more expensive, but telling these two gentlemen that they will be able to buy a car that will last over 200000 miles without a valve job or major engine rebuild would have them laughing you out the door. Airy on the left and rightThose rubber blade fans to clear (maybe) moisture from the windshield. One kind had a clamp to attach around the steering post, or if you wanted real "action" drill a couple holes on the dashboard (steel) and fasten it closer to the windshield. RE: heaters. In 1947, my Grand Father bought a new Chevy pick-up, the first sold in our town after WW2. He paid extra for a heater to be installed, since it was not standard equipment. We've come a far piece in our quest for comfort. Lewis Wickes HineAccording to Wikipedia Hine died Nov. 1940 - so I wonder if this picture was taken earlier or by someone else. Changing fashionsBy 1942 plaid was out and olive drab was in. Air ConditioningIn my 1931 Cadillac. Didn't really help much on the track at Bristol. Mostly just blocked the view of those tight turns. Maybe if I'd had the good four-bladed one from Monkey Ward's. (The Gallery, Cars, Trucks, Buses, John Collier, Stores & Markets)
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 ... 
 
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)
Durward Nickerson: 1914
... a profitable kind of work." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine. Lewis Hine Lewis Wickes Hine: Photographer, social reformer ... 
 
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)
Just Wandered In: 1908
... Witness Sara R. Hine." View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Hine Was Sara Hine the wife of Lewis? What do you mean ... 
 
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)
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 ... 
 
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)
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 ... 
 
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 ... 
 
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 ... 
 
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)
Addie Card: 1910
... "stay." View full size. Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Thanks Joe Manning I just finished the article Joe wrote ... 
 
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)
A Typical Group: 1910
... for the other companies.)" Photograph and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. Library of Congress. View full size. Bless their Arbusy ... 
 
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 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, ... 
 
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)
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 ... 
 
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)
Powerhouse: 1921
... "Powerhouse Mechanic and Steam Pump" (1921). One of Lewis Wickes Hine's celebrated "work portraits" made after his decade-long project ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/06/2021 - 10:01am -

      On this Labor Day 2021, Shorpy wishes everyone a meaningful and at least momentary break from toil. "Powerhouse Mechanic and Steam Pump" (1921). One of Lewis Wickes Hine's celebrated "work portraits" made after his decade-long project documenting child labor. View full size. IconThat has got to be one of the iconic pictures of the 20th century. Re: Icon> That has got to be one of the iconic pictures of the 20th century. ...staged like so many of them. [It's not "staged," it's posed. Which is how art photography works. No different from painting, sculpture or any other representational form. This is why it's called a portrait. - Dave] Listening to "Powerhouse"While looking at a picture titled "Powerhouse" what could be more appropriate that listening to Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse." http://raymondscott.com/Powerhse.wav Nice Image.I think Chaplin in "Modern Times" and Fritz Lang in "Metropolis" must have been inspired by this photo. Steamfitter?I did a project on this photograph in grade 12 photography. I was actually expecting it to appear on Shorpy.com eventually, seeing how it's such an iconic piece. It was called Steamfitter when we did the project, do you know if both titles are used interchangeably? This was the picture that got me interested in Lewis Wickes Hine's photography. Thanks for posting it! Express YourselfLooks like something from the Madonna "Express Yourself" music video... Ooops. I just dated myself.. :-) SteamfitterThis picture is brilliant, and I've often thought that this guy looks like a model. If he was less attractive would it hold appeal? CheersThree cheers to Dave for his note about art and portraiture. Strong imageAs if the worker was blended with the machine. RushThe rock group Rush used this picture in some of their art work on their Snakes & Arrows Audio DVD. There were some mods to the picture but the main part of it was this image. "Blended""As if the worker was blended with the machine." - Anonymous Tipster, Tue, 07/22/08 Indeed. But is the relationship symbiotic, or parasitic -- and if the latter, which is the parasite and which the host? Extra credit: Do you think your answer to that question might have been different if Keanu Reeves and/or the Wachowski Bros had never existed? He looks like Amazing! but he looks like Buster Crabbe! Powerhouse Some years ago (decades actually) I had the good fortune to work with Ray Scott on a number of different projects. Mostly he'd invent and I'd build. He was utterly brilliant and constantly creating things. Bright idea-sparks seemed to fly from him. We were speaking about composition and the origins of how music is "made" - he told me that the basic ostinato theme for "Powerhouse" came from a peek inside the large open doors of one of ConEd's steam-electric plants in New York in the 30s. He said: "I was just knocked out by the rhythm and sounds those three big engines were making. And they stayed in sync with each other for quite a long time. Immediately I heard the tune in my head, and I practically ran to my office to write it down!" Hanging in a frame on the wall of my studio is a signed copy of the sheet music he gave me - one of my 'treasured things'. Pleasant Labor Day to all here at Shorpy - especially Dave and tterrace whose Labors we enjoy. Posing is also workHine let his working people look like they were posing, which is the work they were doing at that particular moment. It's one reason why his photos are art as well as documents. Correct WrenchDoes it not seem a bit large for the nut? Correct wrenchIt is the angle at which the wrench is being held that makes it seem too large. The ends of the wrench are on the nut, but the back part is closer too the camera, so looks larger. If it were flat, it would be clear that if fit. RE: Correct WrenchThat caught my eye, too: especially since there's no way it can turn clockwise without fouling the bolt head above it. But I suspect they needed a loose fit around the nut so the wrench could be held at an compositionally satisfying angle. You know a photo is famousWhen it's copied in another medium. Grandpa was the draftsmanMy grandfather was the draftsman to Edward Gray who designed the Highland Park "Gas-Steam" 6,000 hp engines. One was saved, the first item placed in the Henry Ford Museum. Massive and declared the largest engine in the world at that time. Artist's rendition of the nine 'gas-steam', one 'gas only 5,000hp' and also shows the very first 1500hp engine built at Riverside Engine in Oil City, Pennsylvania, where my grandfather first worked for Edward Gray starting in 1906. The two moved to Highland Park late 1909, as the Highland Park plant was being built. Chaplin's take fifteen years laterHine's photo clearly influenced (though perhaps indirectly) Charlie Chaplin's iconic imagery in 'Modern Times'. Momentary breakWell here I am working 12 hour shifts Sat-Sun-Mon, but taking a "momentary break from the toil" to post this comment. Thanks for the well-wishes Dave, and a Happy Labor Day to all! (The Gallery, Handsome Rakes, 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 ... 
 
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)
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 ... 
 
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)
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 ... 
 
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)
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 ... 
 
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)
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 ... 
 
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)
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)
Slice of Life: 1912
... piece that was done. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Cleanliness I'm just curious as to why the home is not ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/08/2011 - 6:32pm -

August 1912. Another picture of little Annie Fedele, 22 Horace Street, Somerville, Massachusetts, doing piecework, which usually entailed putting the finishing touches (buttons, or collar and waistband trim) on a mostly completed article of clothing. The garment manufacturers paid a few cents for each piece that was done. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. CleanlinessI'm just curious as to why the home is not clean. In a previous picture, it shows her in the kitchen which needed to be cleaned. My grandparents came from Europe, were extremely poor, but did keep their home and children clean. I'm sure water was available to this family. Any thoughts? [Why do you say the kitchen needs to be cleaned? It is clean. It's a wood plank floor. - Dave] Wow, A Real Optical Illusion!I had to stare at this photo for about two minutes before I was finally able to make out the head of a girl looking downwards. With the help of the cracks in the print, you've got to admit that at a cursory glance, there is a resemblance to the head of a giant schnauzer, looking directly into the camera, especially when not blown to its full size. This really gets one thinking about all the different variables that famous picture of the Loch Ness monster might possibly be. I have seen plenty ofI have seen plenty of pictures of that time and what is the norm then is not the norm now. I have seen whole towns in Ohio where there seem to be no grass, trash everywhere in the city's pictures, but 100 years later, it's lush, green and no trash. I think that this house is the norm. And anyone can tell that is a woman in the window. That Doggie In The Window.If this image had ever been used as the cover of a rock album in the 70s, there would've been endless debate as to the symbolism of the giant schnauzer in the window that appears to be wearing a straitjacket. Is that to prevent it from chasing the cat? The fact that it's the only blurry object in the photo would indicate that it was attempting to jump out of the window or something. It's a girl leaning out the window. ("Giant schnauzer in a straitjacket"?? Hmm.) - Dave dirty kitchen?The caption says she is crocheting underwear in a dirty kitchen. [True. But that's Lewis Hine. Always trying spin a little propaganda on the situation. - Dave] Wow, A Real Optical Illusion 2.0"the head of a giant schnauzer"? You'd better lay off that weed for a while. You're starting to see things. "Ma Fedele Viola"Thanks, Mike, for sharing the info. about our grandmother, Annie Fedele Viola. When my great-parents emigrated from Italy, they lived @ 22 Horace Street for 2 years, moved to Linden St., Somerville Ave., then in 1918 purchased a large Victorian "family" home that was a temporary, CLEAN haven open to extended family and friends who had also recently emigrated from Italy. In our nuclear family, "Ma and Pa" lived above us on the second floor. My mom,(Annie's daughter)still lives in our family home on Bonner Ave. WHen Annie's grandchildren (I'm he eldest) and her 6 great-grandsons visit "Ma's" house, the memories of our grandmother ares still re-kindled in a way that could not be adequately expressed! So, the "American Dream" was a reality for them and I am proud of those photographs by Lewis Wickes Hine! And...oh.. by the way... if I may reiterate my brother Mike's words... Annie taught me how to crochet in her IMMACULATE, FASTIDIOUSLY, CLEAN kitchen!!!!! Clean KitchenAnnie Fedele was also my grandmother and like Mike, we were fortunate to have one of our relatives tell us about these pictures. All the memories of her came flooding back and to have pictures of her at this age, as a young child, is a found treasure. Best of all, the pictures were printed out for our mother,(her daughter). She is thrilled and can't believe these pictures existed. She knew immediately everyone in the pictures and all about where our grandmother lived for a short time before moving. (And yes, as Mike stated, our grandmother, her parents and siblings WERE fastidiously clean!) Thanks Dave! Nancy Clean KitchenAnnie Fedele was my grandmother and I was fortunate enough to have had one of my relatives tell me about the existence of this picture. Fabulous! Thanks to Dave for getting these. (and oh by the way, my grandmother, as well as all her brothers and sisters seen in this picture, were fastidiously clean). Mike Annie FedeleThank you, Mike for sharing the info. about our grandmother, Annie Fedele! Having used Lewis Wickes Hine's photos with my 3rd grade students (Lowell Mill girls, breaker boys, doffers etc.), I can't tell you how over-whelmed I was to see that my grandmother was actually one of Mr. Hine's subjects. I plan on using those photos with my students as a vehicle in making history come alive for them as well as a tribute to the most loving, hard-working and dedicated mother and grandmother one could ever be proud to call "Ma." Yes, she was born @ 22 Horace Street and in 1918, moved to Bonner Ave. in Somerville where her daughter(my Mom)still resides in the Fedele-Viola home!It was "Annie" who taught me how to crochet and my pink/ black afghan is a vivid reminder of sitting in Ma's IMMACULATE kitchen! Mike's grandmotherMike I envy you having a picture of your grandmother at this age. :) House is still thereThe back of 22 Horace Street today: same three-part layout, but the entrance is enclosed. Your Somerville pictures and stories wantedI had found the Lewis Hine photos of Horace and Ward Streets a few years back and was thrilled to know some of the Fedele Family. As Preservation Planner for the City, finding this photo with comments by the family is invaluable. We need the stories our immigrant ancestors told and the pictures don't need to be by famous photographers to tell them. Please write and scan as much as you can and share them with us all. [Link? E-mail address? - Dave] (The Gallery, Cats, Kids, Lewis Hine)
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 ... 
 
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)
Neil Power: 1913
... figure. "Hain't been to school much." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Stocking Feat This lad looks shy to be ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 03/09/2010 - 1:30am -

April 1913. Rome, Georgia. Neil Power, 10 years old. Said "turns stockings in Rome Hosiery Mill." A shy, pathetic figure. "Hain't been to school much." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Stocking FeatThis lad looks shy to be sure. Would love to know what he went on to do with his life. Maybe one day we will see a photo on Shorpy with Neil's feet propped up on his desk as President and CEO of the Rome Hosiery Mill. Hey, it might have happened!! A hard-knock lifeMy heart goes out to Neil -- he looks so forlorn. A ratty, filthy sweater full of holes. A hand-me-down belt barely big enough to stretch across his belly. Mud-splattered legs. No shoes. He hasn't even bothered to cinch his knickers at the knee. And he's 10 years old. Didn't his parents care? Was there no adult at work to help him? This is the side of capitalism that most of us pretend doesn't exist. Class DistinctionThe contrast between the photo of this shoeless, scruffy, unschooled young lad and the jaunty Palm Beach tennis players in the previous photo couldn't be more striking. Thank goodness we have managed to eliminate the gap between rich and poor in this country over the past 100 years. Lew HineA do-gooder, yes, but also kind of a snob. The other sideof the era. The "Dirty Job" if you will. He works at a stockings factory yet has none himself. Such a contrast from the privious picture of Palm Springs. One of the earliestLooks like a small fanny pack the lad is wearing. Probably supposed to be used for coins, which were most likely hard to come by for this boy. "Gap" between Rich and PoorI think if you went to right areas of this country, you would still find poverty like this. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it is not there. I would expect the Palm Springs people didn't know. Not PatheticI do not know why he was called pathetic. Someone can work a hard, rough job and be a good person and have a good life. Turns stockingsbut has none of his own to wear. Or, hain't got any of his own to wear. As they say in Georgia,"Well bless his heart." The word "pathetic" has a few different meanings, i.e. (1) evoking pity, (2) moving the feelings, (3) pertaining to or caused by feelings and (4) miserably inadequate. Neil Power may have fit the first three but I'm pretty sure he was not "miserably inadequate" because he did work, he earned bread and most likely helped support his family. Our current obsession with "self-esteem" seems to have turned us all into blithering idiots. I say this because I just read in yesterday's paper that kids in phys ed class in Massachusetts are jumping rope without ropes because it is feared that tripping over the rope or getting tangled in the rope will destroy a kid's self-esteem. I think I would prefer my 10 year old to work in a stocking factory than to learn to jump rope without a rope. (And now we will all pretend we are driving on the interstate -- first, imagine you are in a car ... ) The pouchI bet he kept his trusty foldin' knife in there. Only 97 years agoI showed this photo to my 4th grade students yesterday. I was amazed at the lack of appreciation for today's lifestyle. A majority felt Neil Power was "lucky" that he didn't have to go to school. Very few understood that he HAD to work instead of attending school. He is part of the luckiest generationHis circumstances may seem dire to the average modern young person, but at least he has not had every whim catered to since the day he was born giving him the overwhelming sense of entitlement and ultimate disappointment of today's youth. He probably has more self-reliance and resourcefulness than the average 25 year old of today. He will be too young for the Great War as it was called, but will reach young manhood during the prosperous, booming years of the Roaring 20's. He'll be able to find a job anywhere and marry a cute flapper. He'll have to negotiate the Depression, it's true, but he won't be alone either--my parents were his age and older and were never umemployed in the 30's. He'll be too old for WW II, but will again find employment looking for him. He'll reap the rewards of the great postwar prosperity while only in his late 40's and 50's and probably stay with the same employer until he retires with a pension and health insurance, all the while enjoying all the scientific advances that parallelled his lifetime--not a bad prospect at all. Today's young people should wish they had it so good. Spirit and image? Pardon, good sir, have you mayhaps seen my older brother Shorpy? (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Newsboys Club: 1909
... Room. Boys seated at tables playing games." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Or perhaps Carrom Considering the cue ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 07/08/2013 - 12:11pm -

October 1909. Boston, Mass. "In the Newsboys Reading Room. Boys seated at tables playing games." Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Or perhaps CarromConsidering the cue used on the far right. Possibly PitchnutLooks similar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitchnut Reading RoomIronic title, for kids who, were they not working at such a young age, ought to be in school. Making it up as they goAlmost looks like a shuffleboard type of game, and the kid at the third table over is using a pool cue while the matronly lady looks on approvingly. Meanwhile the boy resting his head on his fist has the devil in his eyes. Take me out to the Disc GameIt looks like they're playing Carrom, which I've only come across in Asian countries before so it's interesting to see it being played in this context. It's a little like playing pool but with discs instead of balls and I've seen it played with both a finger-flick and with a cue, which seems to fit the evening's activities. It's a real betting game - but probably not here! [I'm not so sure about that -- gambling newsies were a staple of the Hine repertoire. - Dave] From newsboys to business menIf the 10 Somerset Street address mentioned by Stanton_Square is correct, the address currently is home to Suffolk University Business School, two blocks from the Massachusetts State House. 15 Howard Street, between Andrew and Dudley Squares, looks to be an abandoned building today. No video gamesA little reading, a lot of face-to-face interaction. Those were the days! If Scrabble had been invented and they were playing itYou can bet one of the words challenged was "wuxtry". (Scrabble came along in the 1930s.) Free Games and BathsA post at the Looking for Lewis W. Hine Photo Locales blog identifies the location of this photo as the Burroughs Newsboys Building at 10 Somerset Street. Earlier accounts report that the newsboys met on Howard Street. Bacon's Dictionary of Boston, 1886. Reading-room for Newsboys and Boot-blacks. 16 Howard Street. Open from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. A resort where books, papers, games, and regular entertainments are furnished. Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, 1902. Report of the Newsboys' Reading-Room Association on Howard Street showed the attendance to have been larger during 1900 than for some time past; average attendance per night was 140 boys; total expenses for the year 1900, $1,755; total receipts, $1,643. This association was formed in 1870, and serves as a reading-room for licensed newsboys. Entertainments, games, drawing classes, books and periodicals of all kinds, as well as bathing facilities, are offered the boys as inducements to join. Everything is free. I Remember CarromWe had a Carrom board growing up in Nebraska in the 60s. On one side was a checkerboard and backgammon triangles. The other side had the setup for playing Carrom. It came with a couple of wooden cuesticks and a bunch of colored plastic rings, plus instructions for several games. In the four corners of the board were net pockets, and we played a billiard sort of game most of the time. (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Harry Swope: 1908
... for a News & Stationery company." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Thank you I too visit this site almost ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 02/16/2010 - 2:38am -

August 1908. "An Enforced Rest. Harry Swope, aged 15, 426 Elm Street, Newport, Kentucky. Carrying heavy bundles of paper for a News & Stationery company." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size. Thank youI too visit this site almost daily. When out of town, I always look forward to seeing what's new at Shorpy when I get back home. Thank you for the many hours of entertainment I have enjoyed here. Birthday wishes!That Shorpy have a long and happy life on the internet. Thank you for all your work. I look forward to the variety of splendid images, full of the rich details of lives lived and experiences past. Three CandlesAt 10:49 tonight Eastern time, Shorpy (the website, not the person) will be exactly 3 years old! Happy Valentine's Day to all. Happy B'day Shorpy!Well done to Dave and all at Shorpy, fantastic job you do. The most educational, enlightening and entertaining site on the net. Happy Birthday!... and thanks for all the fun. Felicitations!May this site outlive all of us. And another thanks to Dave for running it so well; and to other contributors and tipsters, anonymous or not. Happy birthday Shorpy!Happy birthday, Shorpy The Site, from one three-year-old to another! [Awww. - Dave] In the Wire Work Window... a wabbit! Happy Birthday and THANK YOU!Thank you for providing such a wonderful website. I really enjoy "going back in time" through some of the best pictures posted on the web. All the Best Shorpy!As far as I am concerned I have had the privilege of seeing all the best -- right here. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you" etc. Shorpy BirthdayHappy 3rd, Dave. I'm a daily visitor and never leave unhappy. We haven't, however, seen Marilyn lately ... but don't take me too seriously. Sincere best wishes and keep it coming. Shouldn't it be "one hundred and three"?Thanks. You've changed my view of my parents' and grandparents' world. You've brought it alive for me. Join me in a toast.I will hoist my tankard at 10:49 and say happy birthday Shorpy with thanks to Dave. Keep Up The Good WorkHappy Valentine's Day to all of the Shorpy Staff, my compatriot readers and commenters and the ghosts of the smiling Harry Swope and the frowning Lewis Wickes Hine. That one giant step..for lucidity. Thanks Dave for holding our feet to the fire when we post to Shorpy.(feel free to edit,you usually do). Part-tay!Shouldn't we have one? Any excuse for cake and noisemakers! Happy Birthday, Shorpy! Thanks to all who have made this one of my favorite places to spend time. Thanks for the MemoriesShorpy has made my retirement that much richer. Thanks, Dave and thanks all you commenters. Two ThoughtsHappy 3rd birthday to Shorpy and young Harry sure has big feet. Through the Wayback MachineA peek at the past - http://web.archive.org/web/20070221050736/https://www.shorpy.com/ Thanks for the hard work and excellent captions. Happy 3rd Thanks Dave for all your hard work and for giving us a nice place to visit. Happy Birthday Shorpy!Thanks for three years of wonderful photos and opportunities to learn about people and places of our past. And thank you Dave, for keeping it worth coming back to again and again! Woohoo!It's been an enjoyable 3 years and hope that there's many more. Cheers!For the completion of 1,578,240 minutes of delightful entertainment and enlightenment. High fives and many thanks for generously sharing your labor of love. Hot Dog!One last delivery to old man Potter. Happy BDay, Shorpy. Keep them coming. Make a WishHappy Birthday and thanks! Happy Birthentines Day!This website is wonderful, and fun to check each day. Thanks for all the work you do! A Happy Third Birthday - With Many More To ComeThere really is "Always Something Interesting" on Shorpy's. Viewing many of the high quality photographs on Shorpy's is like actually looking back through time. Keep up the excellent work. Oh, the comments that don't get posted!Nice try, Dave, but the 400 block of Elm St. in Newport is non-commercial, residential, detached, single-family housing, and the houses there even today well predate the 1908 date on this photo. At first I thought I was wrong with my previous (unpublished) comment, but there's no way this photo was taken at 426 Elm Street in Newport. There's no commercial architecture there now, and never has been, seeing as all the houses there now are mid 19th. c. shotguns with aluminum siding tacked on. [Hello? Try reading that caption again. 426 Elm in Newport is where Harry lives, not where the photo was taken. - Dave] Bravo and Thank you!!Dave, Happy Birthday to Shorpy.com! This is a great time to say how much I Thank You. When I look at the photo that you posted of our buildings, and study the super-sized print we got from you, I live in 1933 for a time; I visit Tom's Lunch. The print was in the storefront window of subject building for a while and drew and held nearly every passerby- homeless to bank exec.- who would look, and look up, and then look again... and laugh with the joy of discovery. Thanks for that and every other treasure you bring to light. [You're very welcome. Last year Lisa kindly took an hour out of her busy day to give me a tour of the "Tom's Lunch" building, which she owns and was renovating. Someday I will get around to posting the photos! - Dave] Swope & ShorpyHarry Swope's a fine-looking lad, and Shorpy's the finest site on the 'net. Happy 3rd birthday! I echo....all the sentiments here! Over the past 84 some odd weeks (since stumbling onto Shorpy) this site has become my favorite spot on the web. I can gaze for hours in amazement at the detail in the photographs and day dream about times past. Thanks Dave. Happy 3rd and many more!Thanks for the memories and hours and hours of entertainment and education, not necessarily in that order. Henry SwopePushing the limits of my free ancestry.com account, he was still alive as of the 1930 census, married to a Rose and still living in or near Newport, KY. I feel a certain kinship to Harry, as we were both cursed to have that cowlick. Oh and Happy birthday, Shorpy! Happy 3rdThanks, Dave! This is the first place I go to when I turn on the computer. Happy Birthday"Always something interesting" Can't say better! I'm here every day looking for the new photos. Happy birthday, Shorpy! Thank you, DaveShorpy is my hopeless addiction. I take breaks from my work several times a day to come here and prowl through your pages. The photos are so arresting, and I've learned a great deal from them, and from your well educated, well informed visitors. Happy birthday to Shorpys! Thank you Dave for a great site. I discovered this site two years ago. I am addicted to it now and I check every day or several times (according to how busy work is) to see what is posted next. Thanks for helping me get thru the every day grind. I look forward to my Shorpy fix every day. Jon Thanks Dave!Thanks Dave, for making Shorpy.com such a nice, genteel place to visit. This place is the next best thing to having a time machine. [Thank you, and thanks everyone else. Also thanks to Shorpy co-founder Ken, who manages all things financial having to do with the website, as well as many other aspects of its operation. - Dave] Never, never go away...A day without Shorpy is a day without sunshine. Many thanks and endless gratitude for the fascinating photos, brilliant commentary, re-awakening memories of the past and just giving us something worthwhile to look at and think about. Happy birthday Shorpy, all of us appreciate the time and hard work that goes into this pleasure for your viewers. Thanks to everyone at Shorpy, God bless us, every one. SingularSHORPY is the only reason everyone needs a computer! Thanks, Dave. A brilliant idea carried to fruition. Hurrah and happy birthday! Hurrah and happy birthday! Shorpy's a true gem. It's engrossing, educational, classy, just plain fun, and has one of the most civilized message boards on the 'net. Thank you Dave! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!Thank you, Dave, for enabling this lover of history and photography to travel into the past each and everyday for a glimpse into history. And to all the other "tipsters", thank you as well, specially those who have posted present day shots of the many scenes presented here. The best site on the web! Wow!Has it been three years already! Dave thank you so much and happy belated birthday to the site. One of my daily favorites. Harry "Feet" Swope in High SchoolSeems like an accomplished young man. http://freepages.school-alumni.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~schoolpics/KY/newp... [Let's check our math. Harry would have been 42 years old in 1935. - Dave] Oops! Oh well... his son seems pretty accomplished. :-) Happy Birthday ShorpyFor most of the three years, this site has been part of my daily routine. Hardly a day goes by that I don't find at least a few minutes to stare back in time. Shorpy himself I think, would love to have known about the noteriety he'd find, a century after posing for that photo. Thank You This Canadian agrees Shorpy.com is one of the best sites on the web . Thanks again. Many Happy Returns to Shorpy! A great website. Thanks Dave for all your time and effort in making this work. Happy Birthday!Not a day goes by that I don't check your site! I love it when I see shots of hometowns from times past! Keep up the good work! Harry in CincyA bit of Google work turned up a link to an 1889 Cincinnati Bell Telephone Book that lists a Robert J. McCombs, Grocer, at the southeast corner of Sycamore and Fourth Streets in Cincinnati. It would have been an easy walk for Harry to cross the Ohio River to this location. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kycchgs/BOOK_M.htm I was unable to find any information about the wirework company that probably provided the seat that Harry is using. Harry's granddaughter says:"That would be my grandfather. His name was Henry Clay Swope. He married Rose Arizona Casebolt, and had three sons: Harry, Stanley (Bud), and Glenn (my Daddy). He was born in Newport, Kentucky, to Jacob Swope (Schwab) and Sally (Sarah) Bogart." (The Gallery, Lewis Hine)
Our Baby Doffer: 1910
... 'He can't work unless he's twelve'." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine for the National Child Labor Committee. View full size. ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 06/01/2023 - 12:56pm -

November 1910. "Birmingham, Alabama. 'Our baby doffer,' they called him. Donnie Cole. Has been doffing for some months. When asked his age, he hesitated, then said, 'I'm twelve.' Another young boy said, 'He can't work unless he's twelve'." Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine for the National Child Labor Committee. View full size. (The Gallery, Birmingham, Kids, Lewis Hine)
Tom Polk: 1912
... works in Beaumont Mill. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Squinting for Hine Of course being dragged out of the dark ... 
 
Posted by Dave - 09/09/2011 - 11:39am -

May 1912. Spartanburg, South Carolina. Tom Polk, "goin' on 13." Prematurely old, works in Beaumont Mill. View full size. Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine. Squinting for HineOf course being dragged out of the dark mill and posed in the sunlight probably didn't help his expression either. Tom PolkBack when the men were men and so were the boys. I look at this and think about my 40-year-old co-worker complaining about how Barney's no longer sells his favorite mango-papaya anti-wrinkle eye cream. What is wrong with his mouth?Are his lips just extremely chapped? Actually looks like dried blood as it appears to be on his teeth also. [Beverage mustache. - Dave] (The Gallery, Kids, Lewis Hine)
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