Young Girl in Textile Factory, Lewis Wickes Hine

Episode 96 Dec-2006, Emily Ryan, Photography Intern I’m David Cateforis with another Art Minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. The turn of the twentieth century saw dire working conditions in American factories, particularly for immigrants and children. Appalled by this situation, Lewis Wickes Hine, an English teacher in New York City, picked up a camera and set out to document the dismal circumstances in order to raise public awareness. Committed to sociological photography, Hine did freelance work for the National Child Labor Committee, which sent him to textile mills, mines and factories to photograph children in their stifling work environments. Hine became a voice for the children and a driving force behind public support for child labor laws. His poignant 1910 photograph, “Young Girl in Textile Factory,” in the Spencer collection, portrays a girl before an enormous bank of machinery, standing stiffly and looking straight at the viewer. Clumps of cotton litter the floor. Though the subject matter itself is sobering, Hine’s careful composition incorporates mass-production and a disheveled atmosphere to reinforce the spirit of neglect and dehumanization experienced by such laboring children. With thanks to Emily Ryan for her text, from the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.