Photograph by Lewis Wickes Hine of a child farmworker in New England: 1915.
During the Progressive Era, artists, writers, and journalists became fascinated with the social utility of art. As part of the movement, a group of American photographers took on the societal ills of the nation.1 In 1915, Lewis Wickes Hine took the photograph of an unhappy child farmworker in New England; it was one of many photographs he took to expose the evils of child labor.
Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform.2 At that time, children as young as four years labored in a variety of trades for up to 12 hours a day, and approximately two million children were employed in the workforce.3 Falsification of age and inadequate record keeping hid the real numbers.3 In 1910, 12% of children aged 10 to 13 years worked, as did 31% of those aged 14 to 15 years.4 Most of these children engaged in long hours of farm labor or worked alongside parents harvesting seasonal crops.4 Beyond the educational deficiencies, the employment of children in agriculture, manufacturing, and other sectors exposed them to health and safety hazards.3 The health effects of the long workdays for the children ranged from psychological difficulties and injuries to death on the job.4
In 1908, Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee.5 During the 16 years that Hine worked for the National Child Labor Committee, he took some 5000 photographs of children at work in mines, on farms, in canneries, in sweatshops, and on the street. He was frequently threatened with violence by factory supervisors and security personnel. To gain entry into these mills, mines, and factories, Hines was forced to assume many disguises. At times, he was a fire inspector, insurance agent, postcard vendor, Bible salesman, or even an industrial photographer making a record of factory machinery.5
Even today, government regulation of the workplace exempts agricultural employers from numerous provisions that apply to other industries; for example, agriculture is exempt from portions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, allowing children as young as 12 years to work in the fields, whereas 18 is the minimum age for nonagricultural employment.6 Children account for approximately one of every five work-related deaths on farms.7
Acknowledgments
The photograph was provided by The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Endnotes
- 1. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, “Rural Field Worker, New England.” Available at http://collections.lacma.org/node/202592 (accessed January 1, 2015)
- 2. Anthony T. Troncale, About Lewis Wickes Hine, New York Public Library Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs Photography Collection.
- 3. A. Derickson, “Making Human Junk: Child Labor as a Health Issue in the Progressive Era,” American Journal of Public Health 82, no. 9 (1992): 1280–1290. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed]
- 4. H. Markel, J. Golden, “Successes and Missed Opportunities in Protecting Our Children’s Health: Critical Junctures in the History of Children’s Health Policy in the United States,” Pediatrics 115, no. 4, suppl (2005): 1129–1133. [DOI] [PubMed]
- 5. W. Rosenblum, “Foreword,” in America & Lewis Hine: Photographs 1904-1940. (New York, NY: Aperture, 1977), 9–15.
- 6. D. Villarejo, S. L. Baron, “The Occupational Health Status of Hired Farm Workers,” Occupational Medicine 14, no. 3 (1999): 613–635. [PubMed]
- 7. North Carolina Farmworker Advocacy Network, “Children in the Fields: The Facts About Child Labor in North Carolina.” Available at http://www.ncfan.org/child-labor (accessed December 25, 2014)
