Trending Now - Gruesome Pictures From The 1900s Showing The Struggles Of Working Children Before Child Labor Was Abolished

In 1908 Lewis Hine picked up his camera and became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. It was a start of a long decade, as Lewis traveled across the country, documenting child labor, getting constant threats from factory owners as the immorality of child labor was supposed to be kept away from the public’s eye. However, Hine persisted, adopting many different disguises (such as a fire inspector or a bible salesman) to snap pictures and interview the children working at factories or in the streets.

Lewis Hine used his camera as a tool for social commentary and reform, focusing on the dangerous and appalling conditions that the children had to work in. Risking his own safety, Hine snapped thousands of photographs with one goal – to end child labor. And of course, spreading the photographs, in the form of pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines paid off as the federal government eventually had to put out stricter labor laws. Scroll down below to see a selection of Hine’s photographs and don’t forget to tell us what you think.

More info: National Child Labor Committee Collection

A child miner from Castle Gate, c. 1910

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Trending Now - Gruesome Pictures From The 1900s Showing The Struggles Of Working Children Before Child Labor Was Abolished

A child miner from Castle Gate, c. 1910

Young Driver in Mine: Had been driving one year. (7 A.M. to 5:30 P.M. Daily) Brown Mine, Brown , W. Va. Location: Brown, West Virginia

The “Carrying-in Boys,” Midnight At an Indiana Glass Works. Location: Indiana

Tipple Boy, Turkey Knob Mine, Macdonald, W. Va. Witness E.N. Clopper. Location: MacDonald, West Virginia

Drivers in a Coal Mine Co. Plenty boys driving and on tipple. No trappers used, as mine is ventilated by another system. Location: West Virginia

One of the small boys in J. S. Farrand P[ac]king Co. and a heavy load. J. W. Magruder, witness. Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Rose Biodo, 1216 Annan St., Philadelphia. 10 years old. Working 3 summers. Minds baby and carries berries, two pecks at a time. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey

7-year old Rosie. Regular oyster shucker. Her second year at it. Illiterate. Works all day. Shucks only a few pots a day. Varn & Platt Canning Co. Location: Bluffton, South Carolina

Newsboy asleep on stairs with papers. Location: Jersey City, New Jersey

Noon hour in the Ewen Breaker, Pennsylvania Coal Co. Location: South Pittston, Pennsylvania

Arnao family, whole family works. Jo is 3 years old. Boy is 6 years old, Girl is 9 years old. May 28th 1910, before school closed. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey

Noon Hour in an Indianapolis Furniture Factory. Aug., 1908. Wit., E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Ethel Shumate. Has been rolling cigarettes in Danville (Va.) Factory for six months. Said she was thirteen years old, but it is doubtful. Location: Danville, Virginia

Vance, a Trapper Boy, 15 years old. Has trapped for several years in a West Va. Coal mine. $.75 a day for 10 hours work. All he does is to open and shut this door. Location: West Virginia

Some boys were so small they had to climb up on the spinning frame to mend the broken threads and put back the empty bobbins. Location: Macon, Georgia

Some of Newark’s small newsboys. Afternoon. Location: Newark, New Jersey

Two of the tiny workers, a raveler and a looper in Loudon Hosiery Mills. Location: Loudon, Tennessee

Young doffers in Mollahan Mills, Newberry, S.C. Dec. 3/08. Witness, Sara R. Hine. Location: Newberry, South Carolina

Photo of boys working in Arcade Bowling Alley, Trenton, N.J. Photo taken late at night. The boys work until midnight and later. Location: Trenton, New Jersey

Messenger boy working for Mackay Telegraph Company. Said fifteen years old. Exposed to Red Light dangers. Location: Waco, Texas

A greaser in a Coal Mine. See 1835. Location: Bessie Mine, Alabama

Callie Campbell, 11 years old, picks 75 to 125 pounds of cotton a day, and totes 50 pounds of it when sack gets full. “No, I don’t like it very much.” Location: [Potawotamie County, Oklahoma

One of the young spinners in the Quidwick Co. Mill. Anthony, R. I. (A Polish boy Willie) who was taking his noon rest in a doffer-box. Location: Anthony, Rhode Island

Newberry Mills (S.C.) Noon hour. All are working here. Witness, Sara R. Hine. Location: Newberry, South Carolina

A few of the messengers Western Union, Hartford, Conn. They are on duty, alternate nights, until 10 P.M. Location: Hartford, Connecticut

Frank P……., whose legs were cut off by a motor car in a coal mine in West Virginia when he was 14 years 10 months of age. Location: Monongah, West Virginia

6 yr. old Earle Holt (or Hope), 712 H St., S.W., Washington, D.C., sells papers for a neighbor boy. When I met him, within an hour he had forgotten that I had photographed him, but he didn’t forget to shortchange me when I bought the paper. Location: Washington (D.C.)

Maud Daly, five years old. Grade Daly, three years old. Each picks about one pot of shrimp a day for the Peerless Oyster Co. Location: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

5-year old Harold Walker. Location: Comanche County–[Geronimo], Oklahoma

In the Alexandria glass factories, negroes work side by side with the white workers. Location: Alexandria, Virginia

10 yr. old picker on Gildersleeve Tobacco Farm. Location: Gildersleeve, Connecticut

Breaker boys in #9 Breaker, Hughestown Borough, Pa. Coal Co. Smallest boy is Angelo Ross. Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania

7 year old Ferris. Tiny newsie who did not know enough to make change for investigator. There are still too many of these little ones in the larger cities. Location: Mobile, Alabama

A little spinner in Globe Cotton Mill. Augusta, Ga. The overseer admitted she was regularly employed. Location: Augusta, Georgia

Oldest girl, Minnie Carpenter. Makes fifty cents a day of 10 hours. Works four sides. Younger girl works irregularly. Location: Gastonia, North Carolina

“Fire- Fire – I Want to Make the Fire.” An Italian Boy on Salem Street Saturday Morning, offering to make fires for Jewish People. Location: Boston, Massachusetts

A typical Birmingham messenger. Location: Birmingham, Alabama

Lillian Dambrinio, an eleven-year-old shrimp picker in Peerless Oyster Co. She is an American and lives here. Says picking makes her hands sore. Location: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

Louis Birch, newsboy, 12 years of age. Just started selling. Made 10 cents one day. Father dead. While not under any compulsion to sell papers, Louis, of his own accord, took it up in order to help support his widowed mother. Location: Wilmington, Delaware

An Indianapolis Newsie: (Rather young) Witness E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Rhodes Mfg. Co., Lincolnton, N.C. Spinner. A moments glimpse of the outer world Said she was 10 years old. Been working over a year. Location: Lincolnton, North Carolina

Two of the boys on night shift in the More-Jonas Glass Co., Bridgeton, N.J. Location: Bridgeton, New Jersey

Widow & boy rolling papers for cigarettes in a dirty N.Y. tenement. Location: New York, New York

Girls running warping machines in Loray mill, Gastonia, N.C. Many boys and girls much younger. Location: Gastonia, North Carolina

“Basket ! Five Cents Each!” Antoinette Siminger, 12 years old, 4219 Glenway Ave., Price Hill, Sixth St., Market, Cincinnati. 10 P.M. Had been selling since morning. Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

“Radishes! Penny a bunch!” Sixth St. Market, Cincinnati. 10 P.M. Saturday. Boys and girls sell all day, and until 11 P.M. Aug.22, 1908. Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

Greel’s Shoe-shining Parlor, Indianapolis, Ind. Said he was 15 years old. Works some nights until 11. Taken at 10 P.M. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Noon Hour in a Furniture Factory, Indianapolis, Aug., 1908. Wit., E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Glass works, night scene. Location: Indiana

Fruit Vendors, Indianapolis Market, aug., 1908. Wit., E. N. Clopper. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Boys Working in a Cannery, Indianapolis, Unloading freight cars full of new tomato cans. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

A Little “Shaver,” Indianapolis Newsboy, 41 inches high. Said he was 6 years old. Aug., 1908. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Postal Telegraph Messengers, Indianapolis, (Indiana has no age limit for mes’grs.) Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

A. D. T. Messenger Boy, Indianapolis, 10 P.M. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

Lunch Time, Economy Glass Works, Morgantown, W. Va. Plenty more like this, inside. Location: Morgantown, West Virginia

Carrying-in Boy at the Lehr, (15 years old) Glass Works, Grafton, W. Va. Has worked for several years. Works nine hours. Day shift one week, night shift next week. Gets $1.25 per day. Location: Grafton, West Virginia

“Teaching the young idea.” The Boss (who began at 10 years of age, and has been at it for 30 years) showing a beginner (who is apparently 9 or 10) See 169. Location: Morgantown, West Virginia

Boy making Melon Baskets, A Basket Factory, Evansville, Ind. Location: Evansville, Indiana

Boys at Lehr, Economy Glass Works. Location: Morgantown, West Virginia

In front of shacks at noon, Florence colony, Whites Bog, Browns Mills, N.J. This is the fourth week of school and the people expect to remain two weeks more. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey

Tenjeta Calone, Philadelphia, 10 years old. Been picking cranberries 4 years. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey

Boys going to work, Merrimac Mills, noon-hour. Location: Huntsville, Alabama

Hyman Lapcoff, 1526 Fourteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C., a ten year old newsie from a good family, carrying a heavy load of newspapers quite a distance. This is a common occurrence and is bad for the little fellows. Location: Washington (D.C.)

S.D. Ison and family. Father works some. Both boys on right of photo have been in Washington Cotton Mills, Fries, Va., for four years. When I asked the smallest worker how old he was, he said, “Don’t know,” and looked at his father, who said, “Going’ on 14.” Location: Fries, Virginia

Children thrashing corn during school hours on a farm near Dublin. Many such light occupations fall to the lot of the Georgia child. Location: Dublin, Georgia

Sonny and Pete newsboys. One is six years old. They began at 6:00 A.M. Location: San Antonio, Texas

Two little pickers. Manuel Alvez – 12 years, Marion Alvez, 8 years. She picks 19 measures. He picks 10 measures. Location: Falmouth – Baker Bog, Massachusetts

Working Girls Learning Dressmaking in the Free Evening School. Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Eight-year-old, Jennie Camillo, lives in West Maniyunk, Pa. For this summer she has picked cranberries. Location: Pemberton, New Jersey

Francis Lance 5 years old, 41 inches high. Sells regularly on Grand Avenue. Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Mary Christmas, nearly 4 years old. Picks cranberries sometimes. She is now picking up berries spilled at the barrels by Grandfather. Location: Falmouth – Week’s Bog, Massachusetts

11:00 A. M . Monday, May 9th, 1910. Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch, Jefferson near Franklin. They were all smoking. Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Maple Mills, Dillon, S.C. Soarbar Seris, has worked off and on in the mill for 5 years. Winds. Gets 70 cents and up. “Recon I’m about 14.” Didn’t look it. Has worked more nights than day time. Location: Dillon, South Carolina

Salvin Nocito, 5 years old, carries 2 pecks of cranberries for long distance to the “bushel-man.” Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey

Katie Kuritzko, 7-year-old oyster shucker. Has mumps now. Her 8-year-old brother also shucks. Location: Dunbar, Louisiana