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| Newsies at Skeeter Branch, St. Louis, Missouri, 11:00 am, May 9, 1910 Lewis W. Hine (American, 1874–1940) Gelatin silver print; 3 9/16 x 4 11/16 in. (9.1 x 11.9 cm) |
In 1908,
Lewis Hine accepted a position as chief investigator and photographer
for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), a private organization
founded in 1904 to promote legislation to protect children from
exploitation by American industry. Children as young as four years old
labored in a variety of trades for up to twelve hours a day.
During the
sixteen years that Hine worked for the NCLC (often posing as an
insurance inspector to gain access to the worksite), he made some 5,000
photographs of children at work in mines, farms, canneries, sweatshops,
and the street. Less troubling than many of Hine's pictures of child
labor, this casual portrait of a trio of newspaper sellers, or newsies,
shows the young boys awkwardly assuming the roles and mannerisms of
manhood.
