Before child labor was outlawed (25 Pics)

In 1908 Lewis Hine picked up his camera and became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. It was a start of a long decade, as Lewis traveled across the country, documenting child labor, getting constant threats from factory owners as the immorality of child labor was supposed to be kept away from the public's eye. However, Hine persisted, adopting many different disguises (such as a fire inspector or a bible salesman) to snap pictures and interview the children working at factories or in the streets. Lewis Hine used his camera as a tool for social commentary and reform, focusing on the dangerous and appalling conditions that the children had to work in. Risking his own safety, Hine snapped thousands of photographs with one goal – to end child labor. And of course, spreading the photographs, in the form of pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines paid off as the federal government eventually had to put out stricter labor laws. 7-Year Old Rosie. Regular Oyster Shucker. Her Second Year At It. Illiterate. Works All Day. Shucks Only A Few Pots A Day. Varn & Platt Canning Co. Location: Bluffton, South Carolina

Callie Campbell, 11 Years Old, Picks 75 To 125 Pounds Of Cotton A Day, And Totes 50 Pounds Of It When Sack Gets Full. "No, I Don't Like It Very Much." Location: [potawotamie County, Oklahoma

Newsboy Asleep On Stairs With Papers. Location: Jersey City, New Jersey

Accident To Young Mill Worker. Giles Edmund Newsom. While Working In Sanders Spinning Mille, A Piece Of The Machine Fell On To His Foot Mashing His Toe. This Caused Him To Fall On To A Spinning Machine And His Hand Went Into Unprotected Gearing, Crushing And Tearing Out Two Fingers. He Told The Attorney He Was 11 Years Old When It Happened. Location: Bessemer City, North Carolina

7 Year Old Ferris. Tiny Newsie Who Did Not Know Enough To Make Change For Investigator. There Are Still Too Many Of These Little Ones In The Larger Cities. Location: Mobile, Alabama

Tipple Boy, Turkey Knob Mine, Macdonald, W. Va. Witness E.n. Clopper. Location: Macdonald, West Virginia

Frank P......., Whose Legs Were Cut Off By A Motor Car In A Coal Mine In West Virginia When He Was 14 Years 10 Months Of Age. Location: Monongah, West Virginia

Rose Biodo, 1216 Annan St., Philadelphia. 10 Years Old. Working 3 Summers. Minds Baby And Carries Berries, Two Pecks At A Time. Location: Browns Mills, New Jersey

Noon Hour In The Ewen Breaker, Pennsylvania Coal Co. Location: South Pittston, Pennsylvania

#10 Some Boys Were So Small They Had To Climb Up On The Spinning Frame To Mend The Broken Threads And Put Back The Empty Bobbins. Location: Macon, Georgia

#11 A Greaser In A Coal Mine. See 1835. Location: Bessie Mine, Alabama

#12 5-Year Old Harold Walker. Location: Comanche County--[geronimo], Oklahoma

#13 10 Yr. Old Picker On Gildersleeve Tobacco Farm. Location: Gildersleeve, Connecticut

#14 Greel's Shoe-Shining Parlor, Indianapolis, Ind. Said He Was 15 Years Old. Works Some Nights Until 11. Taken At 10 P.m. Location: Indianapolis, Indiana

#15 Lunch Time, Economy Glass Works, Morgantown, W. Va. Plenty More Like This, Inside. Location: Morgantown, West Virginia

#16 Working Girls Learning Dressmaking In The Free Evening School. Location: Boston, Massachusetts

#17 One Of The Small Boys In J. S. Farrand P[ac]king Co. And A Heavy Load. J. W. Magruder, Witness. Location: Baltimore, Maryland

#18 Vance, A Trapper Boy, 15 Years Old. Has Trapped For Several Years In A West Va. Coal Mine. $.75 A Day For 10 Hours Work. All He Does Is To Open And Shut This Door. Location: West Virginia

#19 Breaker Boys In #9 Breaker, Hughestown Borough, Pa. Coal Co. Smallest Boy Is Angelo Ross. Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania

#20 A Typical Birmingham Messenger. Location: Birmingham, Alabama

#21 Rhodes Mfg. Co., Lincolnton, N.c. Spinner. A Moments Glimpse Of The Outer World Said She Was 10 Years Old. Been Working Over A Year. Location: Lincolnton, North Carolina

#22 11:00 A. M . Monday, May 9th, 1910. Newsies At Skeeter's Branch, Jefferson Near Franklin. They Were All Smoking. Location: St. Louis, Missouri

#23 Four-Year-Old Mary, Who Shucks Two Pots Of Oysters A Day At Dunbar. Tends The Baby When Not Working. Location: Dunbar, Louisiana

Little Fannie, 7 Years Old, 48 Inches High, Helps Sister In Elk Mills. Location: Fayetteville, Tennessee

Young Driver In Mine: Had Been Driving One Year. (7 A.m. To 5:30 P.m. Daily) Brown Mine, Brown , W. Va. Location: Brown, West Virginia