These 40+ Photos Show How Children Were Exploited For Profit In The 1900s

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.

These 40+ Photos Show How Children Were Exploited For Profit In The 1900s

#1 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

#3 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

#4 Newsboy Asleep On Stairs With Papers. Location: Jersey City, New Jersey

#5 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

#6 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

#7 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

#8 Four-Year-Old Mary, Who Shucks Two Pots Of Oysters A Day At Dunbar. Tends The Baby When Not Working. Location: Dunbar, Louisiana

#9 Tipple Boy, Turkey Knob Mine, Macdonald, W. Va. Witness E.n. Clopper. Location: Macdonald, West Virginia

#10 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

#11 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

#12 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

#13 5-Year Old Harold Walker. Location: Comanche County--[geronimo], Oklahoma

#14 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

#15 One Of The Small Boys In J. S. Farrand P[ac]king Co. And A Heavy Load. J. W. Magruder, Witness. Location: Baltimore, Maryland

#16 Noon Hour In The Ewen Breaker, Pennsylvania Coal Co. Location: South Pittston, Pennsylvania

#17 Some Of Newark's Small Newsboys. Afternoon. Location: Newark, New Jersey

#18 A Greaser In A Coal Mine. See 1835. Location: Bessie Mine, Alabama

#19 Breaker Boys In #9 Breaker, Hughestown Borough, Pa. Coal Co. Smallest Boy Is Angelo Ross. Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania

#20 Lunch Time, Economy Glass Works, Morgantown, W. Va. Plenty More Like This, Inside. Location: Morgantown, West Virginia

#21 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

#22 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

#23 10 Yr. Old Picker On Gildersleeve Tobacco Farm. Location: Gildersleeve, Connecticut

#24 A Typical Birmingham Messenger. Location: Birmingham, Alabama

#25 "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

#26 Eight-Year-Old, Jennie Camillo, Lives In West Maniyunk, Pa. For This Summer She Has Picked Cranberries. Location: Pemberton, New Jersey

#27 11:00 A. M . Monday, May 9th, 1910. Newsies At Skeeter's Branch, Jefferson Near Franklin. They Were All Smoking. Location: St. Louis, Missouri

#28 Little Fannie, 7 Years Old, 48 Inches High, Helps Sister In Elk Mills. Location: Fayetteville, Tennessee

#30 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

#31 Two Of The Tiny Workers, A Raveler And A Looper In Loudon Hosiery Mills. Location: Loudon, Tennessee

#32 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

#33 A Little Spinner In Globe Cotton Mill. Augusta, Ga. The Overseer Admitted She Was Regularly Employed. Location: Augusta, Georgia

#34 Widow & Boy Rolling Papers For Cigarettes In A Dirty N.y. Tenement. Location: New York, New York

#35 "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

#36 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

#37 Sonny And Pete Newsboys. One Is Six Years Old. They Began At 6:00 A.m. Location: San Antonio, Texas

#38 Working Girls Learning Dressmaking In The Free Evening School. Location: Boston, Massachusetts

#39 Francis Lance 5 Years Old, 41 Inches High. Sells Regularly On Grand Avenue. Location: St. Louis, Missouri

#40 Fruit Peddlers. Boston 1915 Exhibit. Location: Boston, Massachusetts

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