mounted, inserted in album; Rock Creek Bridge at Blagdens Mill, Washington D.C.; wooden bridge over creek at left; four figures (right of bridge, below center) - 3 female and 1 male with white hair, seated on a chair; creek recedes in right background
Press print; two women dressed in white, wearing white caps over their hair are sitting on crates of candy; woman on left is holding an elephant and woman on right is holding a donkey
National Confectioner's Association, 468 Fourth Ave, Suite 1601, New York
Label on crate: Hon. Lafayette Gleason, Hotel Muehlenbach, Kansas City, MO
This individual scene from a daguerreotype panorama consisting of five whole-plate sections by photographer William Shew shows ships in the San Francisco, California harbor from Rincon Point, circa 1852. These ships were abandoned by sailors for the gold rush, and are in various stages of decay.
This self-portrait of early American photographer and optician Henry Fitz, Jr.(1808-1863) is a ninth plate daguerreotype said to have been made in a five minute exposure in bright light. Fitz took this image as early as the fall of 1839 giving it the distinction of being the first self-portrait taken in the United States. Fitz prepared the copper plate used for the daguerreotype in his workshop using a hammer on a polished anvil, and sealed it in a brass frame.
A Lewis Hine silver print circa 1906-1918. One in a series of photographs made for The National Child Labor Committee. A boy working at a loom in a desolate cotton mill. The boy's pants are covered in cotton bits. He wears stockings, but is without shoes.
Verso: "211" twice (pencil).
Description
Lewis Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to a working class family. He was orphaned at the age of fifteen and forced into the workforce. While supporting himself, Hine managed to continue his education. After high school graduation he worked a few odd jobs and then in 1900 eventually enrolled at The University of Chicago. At the University Hine studied Sociology. While taking classes, Hine came to know Frank Manny a professor at the State Normal School. Manny had recently received a job offer to be the superintendent of the Ethical Culture School in New York City. Hine decided to join his new friend and in 1901 moved to New York to teach at Manny's school. Hine continued to pursue his degree in Sociology at New York University. It was during this period that Hine began to use a camera. At first, his interest in photography was simply as a means to educate students and to document school events. However, Hine was quick to take an interest in photography and ultimately this new medium would become the means through which he could express his growing social concerns, especially about child welfare.
In 1904, Hine began his first photo essay. In an attempt to counter growing anti-immigration sentiment amongst New Yorkers, and Americans in general, Hine began a project to photograph immigrant families arriving at Ellis Island. Instead of making them appear pathetic or even animalistic, as other photographers were doing, Hine photographed these people with a humanitarian eye. He depicted them as brave, dignified pioneers of a new land. Hine's camera was a 5x7-plate box-type on a tripod. Often he had to work in low light. If he was indoors, Hine usually had only one chance to photograph an image because after he used a magnesium flash powder to create artificial light the room would fill with smoke, obstructing the image.
In 1905, Hine received his degree from NYU and began considering a career in Sociological Photography. By 1908, he had left his teaching job for a full time position as an investigative photographer for The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). His first commission from the NCLC was to photograph home workers, children and adults, in New York City tenements. Hine was horrified with what he saw, he described the conditions as "One of the most iniquitous phases of child slavery." Later that year Hine, on commission from the NCLC, left New York to photograph child laborers all over the United States. In 1909 Hine published his first photo essay on children at risk. The essay was comprised of material from the first years of his tour of the United States.
Throughout his career many more photo essays would follow, alerting the public to the plight of these American children who were obviously in such grave danger in their working environments.
Hine's work also took him to Europe in 1917. Funded by the Red Cross he photographed European refugees of World War I. In the 1920's, Hine returned to America and to Ellis Island to once again photograph newly arrived immigrants. Although Hine was a pioneer in 'Sociological Photography' and he had vastly increased public awareness about child labor, he still struggled to make a living.
In 1930, ten years before his death, Hine received the honor of photographing the construction of the Empire State Building. For a change, Hine focused on the joyful and productive side of labor instead of the dark side. Lewis Hine died in 1940. As a photographer, Hine left a resounding impact on the worlds of journalism and art, pioneering a new form of storytelling that today we call photojournalism.