Home: Child Labor in the American South

Child Labor in the American South

Selections from the Lewis Hine Collection

HIST 402:  The American South since Reconstruction

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Spring 2007 

 
 

Lewis Hine's photographs of child laborers are justifiably famous, as they powerfully evoke the plight of working children.  He took the photographs between 1908 and 1917 as staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee.  UMBC has a collection of about 4700 Hine photographs from 32 states. 

In the spring of 2007 students in HIST 402 (The South Since Reconstruction), under the direction of Dr. Anne Sarah Rubin, wrote essays about a selection of photographs.  Each student was assigned five images (related to each other in some way) and asked to put them in context.  You can read their essays here, organized by either state or industry.

Browse the essays by state

Browse the essays by industry

Bibliography