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Turn of the Century Children

Album Description

Information regarding how children lived, worked, and were treated at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

ChildrenAttendingLitRedSchH.jpg

NewBksForBandGs.jpg

Teaching Notes

A poster of listed new children's books.

ChildrenInClassroom.jpg

Teaching Notes

This image shows children in their classroom setting around the 1900s.

ChildSpinnersElkCtyMill.jpg

Teaching Notes

Child Labor - Group of Spinners at Elk County Mills

6YrOldPickingBerries.jpg

Teaching Notes

This little six-year helper in Rock Creek berry field, near Baltimore, Md., was working hard. They begin about 4:30 A.M. and sometimes work until sunset. Her family (Scholtz) has been South--Bluffton, S.C.--for a few years. Seen in Appalacicola and Bixloxi. They are Polish. Location: Baltimore, Maryland.

WidowAndBoyRollingCigarettes.jpg

Teaching Notes

Young boy having to help his mother. Rolling cigarettes in a NY tenement basement.

ChildrenWorkingInPackingCo.jpg

Teaching Notes

Some of the workers in a Md. packing company. Plenty of work for even the tiniest hands. Many have to carry heavy boxes full of beans etc. Location: [Baltimore, Maryland].

'These photos ended child labor in the US'

Teaching Notes

These photos are said to help end child labor in America.

Reference note

'Child labor was widely practiced until a photographer showed the public what it looked like.
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The 1900 US Federal Census revealed that 1.75 million children under the age of 16, more than one in five, were gainfully employed. They worked all over the country in cotton mills, glass blowing factories, sardine canneries, farms, and even coal mines. In an effort to expose this exploitation of children, the National Child Labor Committee hired a photographer to travel around the country and investigate and report on the labor conditions of children.

Lewis Wickes Hine photographed and interviewed kids, some as young as 4 years old, and published his findings in various Progressive magazines and newspapers. Once the public saw the plight of these children, state legislatures were pressured to pass bills regulating labor for workers under the age of 18, effectively bringing an end to child labor in the United States.

See the entire collection of Lewis Hine's photos for the National Child Labor Committee here: https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-child-labor-committee/about-this-collection/

Darkroom is a series from Vox producer Coleman Lowndes that digs into stories of the past, one photograph at a time. Watch all the episodes here: http://bit.ly/321DvzO

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Games played by children.jpg

Teaching Notes

This group of young boys in a Bain News Service photograph only needed a piece of chalk and their game pieces to create their impromptu game of checkers on a New York City sidewalk. All the world’s a gameboard, it would seem!  

Reference note

[New York City - children on the street: boys playing checkers in the street]

  • Digital ID: (b&w film copy neg.) cph 3b18583 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b18583
  • Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-71201 (b&w film copy neg.)
  • Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Young ppl swimming.jpg

Teaching Notes

Young people playing games in swimming pool.

Reference note

Mah-Jong at bathing beach, 6/20/[24]

  • Digital ID: (digital file from original) npcc 11609 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/npcc.11609
  • Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-npcc-11609 (digital file from original)
  • Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Teacher and students at board.jpg

Teaching Notes

Elementary school children standing and watching teacher write at blackboard, Washington, D.C.

Reference note

  • Title: [Elementary school children standing and watching teacher write at blackboard, Washington, D.C.]
  • Creator(s): Johnston, Frances Benjamin, 1864-1952, photographer
  • Date Created/Published: [1899?]
  • Medium: 1 photographic print.
  • Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-90603 (b&w film copy neg.)
  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
  • Call Number: LOT 2749, no. 136 [item] [P&P]
  • Notes:

Teacher w students at schoolhouse.jpg

Teaching Notes

Africian American school children posed with their teacher outside a school, possibly in South Carolina

Reference note

  • itle: [Africian American school children posed with their teacher outside a school, possibly in South Carolina]
  • Date Created/Published: [Detroit : Detroit Publishing Company, between 1900 and 1910]
  • Medium: 1 photographic print : gelatin silver.
  • Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-13304 (digital file from original photograph) LC-USZ62-26381 (b&w film copy neg.)
  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
  • Call Number: LOT 6350 [item] [P&P]
  • Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Group of African American children playing

Reference note

Creator(s): Harris & Ewing, photographer
Date Created/Published: [between 1915 and 1923]
Call Number: LC-H27- A-1160 [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes: Title devised by Library staff. Date based on date of negatives in same range. Gift; Harris & Ewing, Inc. 1955. General information about the Harris & Ewing Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.hec Temp. note: Batch seven.
Subjects: United States.