Heart of the Turbine

“I wanted to show the things that had to be corrected; I wanted to show the things that had to be appreciated.”—Lewis Hine Working as a photographer and inspector for the National Child Labor Committee in the early 1900s, Lewis W. Hine documented underage laborers in coal mines and cotton mills. This image of a young boy named Richard Pierce working as a messenger for the American District Telegraph Company, an affiliate of Western Union, is just one of thousands of instances of labor abuses that Hine captured over his career. By exposing the ills of immigrant and labor conditions and inspiring empathy for his subjects, Hine was able to use photography to bring about social reform. Hine’s photographs would eventually compel the U.S. Congress to pass legislation against child labor.