Dangerous Work
Lewis Wickes Hine came to Maine in 1909 to document child labor abuses in the canneries and mills. His haunting photographs shocked a nation.
By Virginia Wright
I am sometimes inclined to think that we must mutilate these infants in industry before the shame of it can be driven home." Thus did Lewis Wickes Hine express his frustrations with a public disinterested in the abuses of child labor in the early twentieth century. But reformers hardly had to resort to maiming children to make their case, as Hine's photographs of Maine mill and cannery workers reveal. Sliced fingers and broken limbs were part of the workday routine.A pioneer of "concerned photography," Hine forayed into Maine twice during the eleven years he worked for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), the first organization to effectively lobby for reforms.
