LEWIS HINE: Child Labor through a lens
Lewis Hine
With the help of Lewis Hine, the National Child Labor Committee was able to show people the horrors of child labor through pictures rather than words.
"Hine travelled the country taking pictures of children working in factories. In one 12 month period he covered over 12,000 miles...Hine made no attempt to exaggerate the poverty of these young people. Hine's critics claimed that his pictures were not "shocking enough". However, Hine argued that people were more likely to join the campaign against child labour if they felt the photographs accurately captured the reality of the situation..."
"Factory owners often refused Hine permission to take photographs and accused him of muckraking. To gain access Hine sometimes hid his camera and posed as a fire inspector. Hine worked for the National Child Labour Committee for eight years. Hine told one audience: 'Perhaps you are weary of child labour pictures. Well, so are the rest of us, but we propose to make you and the whole country so sick and tired of the whole business that when the time for action comes, child labour pictures will be records of the past.'"
"Owen Lovejoy, Chairman of the National Child Labour Committee, wrote that: 'the work Hine did for this reform was more responsible than all other efforts in bringing the need to public attention.'"
-(Lewis Hine, Spartacus Educational)
The book, American Passages A History of the United States writes,
"Photographers educated the public about the existence of these conditions in the years 1890 to 1910, and images such as [the] one [taken by Lewis Hine] helped create the popular awareness behind the political and economic reforms of this period."
"Hine travelled the country taking pictures of children working in factories. In one 12 month period he covered over 12,000 miles...Hine made no attempt to exaggerate the poverty of these young people. Hine's critics claimed that his pictures were not "shocking enough". However, Hine argued that people were more likely to join the campaign against child labour if they felt the photographs accurately captured the reality of the situation..."
"Factory owners often refused Hine permission to take photographs and accused him of muckraking. To gain access Hine sometimes hid his camera and posed as a fire inspector. Hine worked for the National Child Labour Committee for eight years. Hine told one audience: 'Perhaps you are weary of child labour pictures. Well, so are the rest of us, but we propose to make you and the whole country so sick and tired of the whole business that when the time for action comes, child labour pictures will be records of the past.'"
"Owen Lovejoy, Chairman of the National Child Labour Committee, wrote that: 'the work Hine did for this reform was more responsible than all other efforts in bringing the need to public attention.'"
-(Lewis Hine, Spartacus Educational)
The book, American Passages A History of the United States writes,
"Photographers educated the public about the existence of these conditions in the years 1890 to 1910, and images such as [the] one [taken by Lewis Hine] helped create the popular awareness behind the political and economic reforms of this period."
