Cotton Mill Girl
Photographer: Lewis Hine’s
Date: c. 1908–1918
Location: Whitnel Cotton Mill, USA
Lewis Hine photographed child laborers working in textile mills across the American South and East as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee beginning in 1908. His photographs of young children — some as young as 8 or 9 years old — operating dangerous industrial machinery in mills and factories shocked the American public. Hine had to use subterfuge to gain access, sometimes posing as a fire inspector or Bible salesman. His documentation of 'Cotton Mill Girl' and similar images were published widely and used in lobbying campaigns. His body of work contributed to the passage of the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 and ultimately to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which established a national minimum wage and effectively ended most forms of industrial child labor in the United States. Hine's photographs are considered among the most effective uses of photography as a tool for social reform.
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