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Breaker Boys in Coal Chute, South Pittston, Pennsylvania, January 1911

Lewis Hine took hundreds of pictures as staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee from 1908 to 1918. Hine traveled across the country, photographing children in textile mills, canneries, glass and shoe factories, mines, and fields to reveal the extent of child labor and the need for enforcement of reform laws. “No anonymous or signed denials can contradict proof given with photographic fidelity,” Hine wrote. “These pictures speak for themselves, and prove that the law is being violated.”

Source: Lewis Hine, "Noon hour in the Ewen Breaker, Pennsylvania Coal Co. Location: South Pittston, Pennsylvania," January 1911—Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, National Child Labor Committee Collection, LC-DIG-nclc-01134.

Who Built America? An Open Educational Resource has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and funding from The Ford Foundation, Digital Scholar, and the City University of New York Central Office of Library Services. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Open Educational Resource, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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