His photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The Agfa paper and logo and the brightening agents did not come into use until the 1950's, some 20 years after the prints were purported to have been made and more than a decade after Hine died. A Vietnam War photographer captured the bloody Tet offensive. In January 1940, he lost his home after failing to keep up repayments to the Home Owners Loan Corporation. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Lewis Wickes Hine. Sadly, Hine died penniless in 1940. Corrections? Hine's work is held in the following public collections: Baseball team composed mostly of child laborers from a glassmaking factory. [LC-DIG-nclc-01151] One of the many remarkable powers of photography is that it can be used to right social injustices. The number of children under the age of 15 who worked in … Two years later, Hine, the epitome of the “concerned photographer,” died penniless and on welfare, his beloved wife Sara dead of pneumonia, his house lost to foreclosure. 1908: Lewis Hine began working for the NCLC as a photographer. Hine was trained as a sociologist. In 2006, author Elizabeth Winthrop Alsop's historical fiction middle-grade novel, Counting on Grace was published by Wendy Lamb Books. [5], After Hine's death, his son Corydon donated his prints and negatives to the Photo League, which was dismantled in 1951. Hine was destined to have a unique outlook on life. Where will her good looks be in ten years? [5] To gain entry to the mills, mines and factories, Hine was forced to assume many guises. He died penniless of unknown causes on November 3, 1940, some say of a broken heart. Photographer Lewis Hine captured the appalling child labor conditions of early 20th century United States in stark, history-making detail. Lewis Hine died in obscurity and abject poverty in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Lewis Hine/NYPL. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. He photographed the workers in precarious positions while they secured the steel framework of the structure, taking many of the same risks that the workers endured. Lewis Hine found many several children here that had cut fingers, and even the adults said they could not help cutting themselves on the job. Hine's work for the NCLC was often dangerous. @joerepusa: Both Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis did important work, but assigning a qualification of which was “better” is a reflection on you. But, like the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda, he died a pauper. Hine's photographs supported the NCLC's lobbying to end child labor and in 1912 the Children's Bureau was created. Rosenblum, Walter. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership. After his death, most of his photographs were donated to charitable museums. New York: Aperture, up. He also served as chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration's National Research Project, which studied changes in industry and their effect on employment. Despite his last book, “ Lewis W. Hine. Two years later Hine was hired by the National Child Labor Committee to explore child-labour conditions in the United States more extensively. In 2016, Time published colorized versions of several of Hine's photographs of child labor in the US.[13]. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States. [9] Few people were interested in his work, past or present, and Hine lost his house and applied for welfare. Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and photographer. [4] In 1913, he documented child laborers among cotton mill workers with a series of Francis Galton's composite portraits. The location suggested by the caption may be in question. Brought from a more rural setting to the bustling metropolis, when asked by the interviewer which of the sites most shocked him, his answer was unexpected, “little children working.” Children, of course, had always worked. In 1907, Hine became the staff photographer of the Russell Sage Foundation; he photographed life in the steel-making districts and people of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the influential sociological study called The Pittsburgh Survey. Following in the footsteps of Jacob Riis, American photographer and sociologist Lewis Hine used his camera to spark social change. (Knights) April 15, 1904: A non-profit organization called the National Child Labor Committee was founded by Edgar Garner Murphy and Felix Adler to help fight against child labor laws. September 26, 1874: Lewis Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Hine, who died in 1940, was one of the greatest documentary photographers of the 20th century. Lewis Wickes Hine, Art Institute of Chicago, "Spinner in Vivian Cotton Mills, Cherryville, N.C.: Been at it 2 years. In fact, his work helped ensure American child labor laws were enacted in the early 20th century. His father died when Lewis was seventeen years old. Lewis Hine died in November 1940 at the hospital in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Thereafter he documented a number of government projects. Factory wages were so low that children often had to work to help support their families. In 1930, Hine was commissioned to document the construction of the Empire State Building. Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, above a popular Main Street restaurant that his parents owned. After his father was killed in an accident, Hine began working and saved his money for a college education. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Foreword. Lewis Hine . [6], During and after World War I, he photographed American Red Cross relief work in Europe. The latter chapters center on 12-year-old Grace and her life-changing encounter with Hine, during his 1910 visit to a Vermont cotton mill known to have many child laborers. At times he was a fire inspector, postcard vendor, bible salesman, or even an industrial photographer making a record of factory machinery. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. But he surely did not die in vain. Over the next decade, Hine documented child labor, with focus on the use of child labor in the Carolina Piedmont,[3] to aid the NCLC's lobbying efforts to end the practice. Annie Hine was born to James Henry Hine and Ellen Lewis Hine. John Dempsey aged eleven working in a mule … Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, National Child Labor Committee Collection. He worked as a hauler at a furniture factory, toiling thirteen hours a day, six days a week, to help support his mother and sister. Lewis Hine, in full Lewis Wickes Hine, (born September 26, 1874, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.—died November 3, 1940, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York), American photographer who used his art to bring social ills to public attention.. Hine was trained as a sociologist. Fifty years later, he bears witness again. 9–15. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Hine made a series of "work portraits," which emphasized the human contribution to modern industry. ... and those confined to tight spaces died in explosions, cave-ins, and fires. He kept a careful record of his conversations with the children by secretly taking notes inside his coat pocket and photographing birth entries in family Bibles. He was a school teacher but then quit his job to become a child labor photographer. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Millworkers in Salisbury, N.C., photograph by Lewis Hine. Spinner in North Pormal (i.e., Pownal) Cotton Mill. [1], Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on September 26, 1874. He died on November 3, 1940 at Dobbs Ferry Hospital in Dobbs Ferry, New York, after an operation. Photography was not only prohibited but also posed a serious threat to the industry. Screen Room – Hazleton, Pa. Updates? He began to portray the immigrants who crowded onto New York’s Ellis Island in 1905, and he also photographed the tenements and sweatshops where the immigrants were forced to live and work. The Time Magazine serialized the colored pictures of his collections of child laborers in the cotton factories he visited. Eastport, Maine, August 1911. He began to portray the immigrants who crowded onto New York’s Ellis Island in 1905, and he also photographed the … The Museum of Modern Art was offered his pictures and did not accept them, but the George Eastman House did.[11]. The demand for labor grew, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries many children were drawn into the labor force. Marvin Israel (1977). He was 66 years old. Inspired by early fine art photographers like Alfred Stieglitz, his images are a mix of artistry and photojournalism. He became a teacher in New York City at the Ethical Culture School, where he encouraged his students to use photography as an educational medium. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. After his return to New York City, Hine was hired to record the construction of the Empire State Building, then the tallest building in the world. These photo stories included such pictures as Breaker Boys Inside the Coal Breaker and Little Spinner in Carolina Cotton Mill, which showed children as young as eight years old working long hours in dangerous conditions. Formerly attributed to "unknown", and often misattributed to Lewis Hine, it was credited to Charles C. Ebbets in 2003. Lewis Hine 1874-1940 About Lewis Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on September 26, 1874 to Douglas Hull Hine, a veteran of the Civil War, and Sarah Hayes Hine, an educator. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 eventually brought child labour in the US to an end. Hines’s photographs helped draw public attention to the problem of child labour in the United States and ultimately assisted in ushering in federal regulations on workplace conditions. She died in 1895 in Geelong, Australia. By then, the public had lost interest in Lewis Hine’s work. Between 1904 and 1909, Hine took over 200 plates (photographs) and came to the realization that documentary photography could be employed as a tool for social change and reform.[1]. At the time, the immorality of child labor was meant to be hidden from the public. In 1909 Hine published Child Labor in the Carolinas and Day Laborers Before Their Time, the first of his many photo stories documenting child labour. Similar cards have been found with different captions. Later because an investigative photographer for National Child Labor Committee (worked for free; died penny-less) Hine traveled throughout the eastern half of the United States, gathering appalling pictures of exploited children and the slums in which they lived. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 eventually brought child labour in the US to an end. He measured the children’s heights by the buttons on his vest. Linda Gordon, Dorothea Lange: A Life Without Limits (New York: W. W. Norton, 2009), p. 206. Hine, born in Wisconsin in 1874, would go on to become one of the progressive era’s great photographers. ", "Children in the machine: Lewis Hine's photography and child labour reform", "Lewis W. Hine; Photographer Whose Pictures Showed Conditions in Factories", p. 19, "The new season / Photography: critic's choice; A Career That Moved From Man to Machine", "Colorized Photos of Child Laborers Bring Struggles of the Past to Life", https://www.artic.edu/search?q=%22Lewis%20Wickes%20Hine%22, "Search results – NYPL Digital Collections", "Addie Card: Search For An Amemic Little Spinner", Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor, David Joseph Marcou, 'Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874-1940: A Biographical Essay, with Photographs by Lewis Wickes Hine, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lewis_Hine&oldid=993153692, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2019, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with RKDartists identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 9 December 2020, at 01:59. Overseer supervising a girl (about 13 years old) operating a bobbin-winding machine in the Yazoo City Yarn Mills, Mississippi, photograph by Lewis W. Hine, 1911; in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Died at 10 months old. On the cover is the iconic photo of Grace's real-life counterpart, Addie Card[12] (1897–1993), taken during Hine's undercover visit to the Pownal Cotton Mill. [7] At times, he remembered, he hung above the city with nothing below but "a sheer drop of nearly a quarter-mile."[8]. Born in 1874 in Wisconsin, Hine didn’t start off as a photographer.After his graduation from the University of Chicago in 1901 he taught botany and nature studies at the Ethical Culture School in New York City.It was there, after a colleague suggested he use photography as a tool for his classes, that Lewis Hine as a photographer was born. The picture of the newsboys is one of over 5,000 made by child labor activist Lewis Hine. Lewis Hine, in full Lewis Wickes Hine, (born September 26, 1874, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, U.S.—died November 3, 1940, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York), American photographer who used his art to bring social ills to public attention. What did Lewis Hine do for a living? Omissions? Late in World War I, Hine served as a photographer with the Red Cross. Born Oshkosh, Wisconsin Died Hastings-on-Hudson, New York born Oshkosh, WI 1874-died Hastings-on-Hudson, NY … After the Civil War, the availability of natural resources, new inventions, and a receptive market combined to fuel an industrial boom. His wife died on Christmas Day of 1939 and one month later, Hines' house was repossessed. Early human hunter-gatherers had enlisted th… Hine was also a faculty member of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. To obtain the best vantage points, Hine was swung out in a specially-designed basket 1,000 ft above Fifth Avenue. Unfortunately, his father died when he still young, and he began to work and save money so that he could go to college. Today, Hine’s photographs of child labor belong to collections at the Library of Congress and the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y. His last years were marked by professional struggles due to diminishing government and corporate patronage. Dieser Pinnwand folgen 109 Nutzer auf Pinterest. Indiana (1908), Adolescent Girl, a Spinner, in a Carolina Cotton Mill (1908) Princeton University Art Museum, "Addie Card, 12 years. Comp. But in 1893, during an economic downturn, the factory closed. Print. In Michael Schuman’s History of Child Labor in the United States, he cites a 1906 article in Cosmopolitanmagazine which told the story of a Native American chieftain’s first trip to Manhattan. 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