THE CHILD LABOR PHOTOS THAT SHAMED AMERICA

Collage of child labor photos taken at turn of the century by Lewis Hine. His photos now reside at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, in Rochester, NY. CLICK TO ENLARGE (INTERNATIONAL) -- At the turn of the century many people in America did not believe, simply could not believe that small children, mostly from poor families were being terribly exploited by factory and coal mine owners and bosses. They were routinely made to work long hours in sometimes dangerous industrial settings for virtually no money to speak of. In coal mines children as young as seven and eight years old worked underground in the dark. In factories young children worked around large, loud and often dangerous machines that would occasionally take off a tiny hand or arm if a child was unlucky. They were considered by factory owners simply factory fodder and collateral damage in the days of the industrial revolution when no unions were there to protect children or adults and no labor laws to protect children. Lewis Hine is the photographer best known for his images of construction workers who helped build the Empire State Building in 1930. But many years before that, in 1908 he was a sociology professor hired by the National Child Labor Committee to document how children as young as seven were working in cotton mills and coal mines. People who wanted to protect these children knew that visual proof of their lives in the factories and mines was needed before any child labor laws could be enacted. For over ten years of his life Hine shot thousands of photographs that eventually helped convince US lawmakers to introduce new industrial labor regulations to protect children. There is a new book out about his work titled simply, Lewis Hine. The BBC has a video report here on the images in the book which are today kept at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, in Rochester, NY.