Child Labor Reform Photographs

Objective Assessment


As you view each photograph take note about what you see. (note people, background, objects) Pretend you were describing the image to someone who could not see it. Try to avoid making judgments.

Where are these children? List any clues relating to their surroundings.
Describe any tools or objects you see.
Describe their clothing. What do their clothes reveal about their work?

Subjective Assessment


What questions do you have about each of these photographs?
Based on your observations, list three things you might infer about the lives of these children. (Be sure to consider Hine's notes about the photographs when considering this.


Photograph A- The photograph is of a young girl at work at a cotton mill. One can infer this because of the cotton spinning machines that are on the wall next to which she is standing. She is wareing tattered clothes which is most likely due to the hard work she endurs. One caninfer her work is hard because she is the lone worker in the photographand there are alot of machines. This chiled is most likely from a poor family, possably an immigrant, and uneducated, because of the time she spends working rather than going to school.

Photograph B- This photograph depicts five girls, probably around the age of 8, outside a factory. They all look upset and dirty. They are wareing clothes that are tattered and worn. This is most likely because they are forced to work there by their poor economic situations. At the factory, because this is before child labor reform, they were probably forced to work hard for long hours and little pay.I wonder what kind of work theys girls preform.

Photograph C
In this photograph there is a very young girl who looks tired and upset, working in what looks like a cloth makeing factory. She is wareing clothes that look like she has been working in them for quite some time. Based upon this photograph one can infer that this girl must work at the factory because her family is poor. You can also tell she must work very hard by the ratio of machines to workers, there is one little girl with many machines.

Photograph D
In the picture there is a very small boy selling newspapers to people in the city. He looks extreamily dirty and has tattered clothes. Because of this, one can infer the boy comes from a poor economic background. The look on his face shows anguish almost, showing that the work is probably more than he can handel, or that he is worried he wont sell enough to meet his needs.

Photograph E
This photograph shows many boys working at a coal factory. The density of the dust is so extream that it disruts the ability of the photo to capuure the seen, which is obvously unhealthy for those working there. The fact that these children are all working at such a young age shows that they are poor and desprately need the small wages they earn working. They probably had health problems later in life because of the working conditions they dealt with.

Photograph F
This picture depicts teenage boys working late at night in a glass factory. They are wareing ripped clothes that show that they have worn their working clothes alot. They are poor if they are working at 9 at night at their age. One can infer that if they are poor they have worked their entire childhood. They probably don't get a good education because of the amount of hours they work, too.

Photograph G
The people in this photograp are working at an oyster factory. The work they are doing looks hard and there are people rangein from no more than three years old to middle aged people, all working. The infrence that can be taken from this photograph is that the people are poor, because of the age of some of the workers and the clothes that they are wareing. The clildren in this picture will probably have to work their entire childhood like this because of their economic background. They will never get to experience a happy childhood.

Photograph H
This photograph shows children going to work a night shift at a factory. They are all poor because otherwis they would not be working at all, let alone a night shift. This also means they will not be able to recieve a proper education because they are too busy working. The three girls who work even though their father don't are most likely totally independent in raising themselfs, because if their father dosen't even work to support them he is most likely not involved in their lives whatsoever.