Edwin Rosskam

Edwin Rosskam was an FSA photographer. There is a very interesting transcript of an interview with him and his wife Louise (also a photographer).

 Beach scene at New Beach, the most popular beach near Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1937

 Beach scene, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1937

Gymnastics on the beach? What an interesting photo!
  

Street scene, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1937

 

Local talent makes music on a Sunday afternoon under the soldiers' monument, 

Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1940

 Boys playing that they are shooting machine guns at a passing aeroplane, 

Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

 Children in front of kitchenette apartment, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

 Children playing on the street, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

 Children playing ring around a rosie in one of the better neighborhoods 

of the Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

 Children watching a mock wedding parade on N Street SW, Washington, DC, 1942

 Negro family, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

Young people outside of Negro high school, Black Belt, Chicago, Illinois, 1941

Lewis Hine - Newsies

Children who sold newspapers on the street in the early 20th century were called "newsies". Lewis Hine took many pictures of these kids as part of his crusade against child labor.

A few years prior to Hine's photographic activities, there was labor unrest among the newsies: the Newsboy Strike of 1899. A very interesting forgotten episode in American labor history.

 2 am February 12, 1908. Papers just out. Boys starting out on morning round, New York

 6 year old George Greentree, sells for 12 year old brother. Both make $1 a day. Stays out often until midnight. Father dead. Mother janitor in church. Jacksonville, Florida, 1913

 7 year old Ferris. Tiny newsie who did not know enough to make change for investigator. 

Mobile, Alabama, 1914

 7 year old twins. Been selling for 1 year. Sell sometimes until 8 pm. 

Hartford, Connecticut, 1909
(Check out the confusing marketing signs on the door: navel oranges are 25 cents a dozen,
29 cents a dozen, and 35 cents a dozen, all specials today!)

A gang of newsies at the office of "Every Evening." "Everybody in this gang sells." 

Wilmington, Delaware, 1910

 After midnight April 17, 1912, and still selling extras. Washington, DC

 Amusing themselves while waiting for morning papers, New York, 1908

 Donald and Myrtle Mallick. Myrtle is 8 years. Average earnings 35 cents per day. Sells from choice. Earnings not needed at home. Visits saloons. Wilmington, Delaware, 1910

 Dora Nevins 12 years old. Been selling 1 year. Hartford, Connecticut, 1909

Girls coming through the alley. The smallest girl has been selling for 2 years. 

Hartford, Connecticut, 1909

Ben Shahn - Kids

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born photographer (also a painter) who worked for the FSA during the Great Depression. Here are some of his pictures of children.

 Children of African-American sharecroppers, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1935

 Children of Sam Nichols, Arkansas tenant farmer, 1935

 Children of destitute Ozark mountaineer, Arkansas, 1935

 Children of homesteaders, the Resettlement Administration's Shenandoah Homesteads, 1941

 Children of homesteaders, the Resettlement Administration's Shenandoah Homesteads, 1941

 Dwellers in Circleville's "Hooverville," central Ohio, 1938

(more on Hoovervilles)

School youngsters, Red House, West Virginia, 1935

Young boys salvaging coal from the slag heaps, Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, 1937

Lewis Hine

Lewis Wickes Hine was a photographer active in the first three decades of the 20th century. He was perhaps the first to effectively use photography as a driver for social change. His searing photos of child labor practices helped bring about legislation to end child labor in the US.

Hine's output was enormous. Much of it is available in raw form at the Library of Congress collection (from which most of Hine's photos posted on this blog will be drawn).

Many web resources focusing on Hine exist. Two good ones are the Lewis Hine Project and a New York Times feature.

In this set are photos of children shucking oysters - a demanding and dangerous job.

 10 year old Jimmie. Been shucking 3 years. 6 pots a day, and a 11 year old boy who shucks 7 pots. Also several members of an interesting family named Sherrica. 

Varn & Platt Canning Co. Bluffton, SC, 1913

 All are oyster-shuckers in Barataria Canning Company, Biloxi, Mississippi, 1911

 All these children (except babies) shuck oysters and tend babies at the Pass Packing Co. I saw them all at work there long before daybreak. Pass Christian, Mississippi, 1911

 Bertha, a six-year old oyster shucker. Began work at 4 am, 1912

 Carrie, a 7-year-old oyster shucker at Pass Packing Co., going home at 5 pm after a day beginning at 4 am, and spent shucking oysters and tending the baby. Pass Christian, Mississippi, 1911

 Four-year-old Mary, who shucks two pots of oysters a day at Dunbar. 

Tends the baby when not working, Dunbar, Louisiana, 1911

Group of oyster shuckers in Barataria Canning Co., Biloxi, Mississippi, 1911

 Josie, six, Bertha, six, Sophie, 10, all shuck regularly. 

Maggioni Canning Co. Port Royal, South Carolina, 1911

 Katie Kuritzko, 7-year-old oyster shucker, 1911

 Nine-year-old Johnnie and the shucking-boss, Dunbar, Louisiana, 1911

 Olga Schubert, a little 5-year-old after a day's work that began about 5 am 

helping her mother in the Biloxi Canning Factory, 1911

 On right-hand end is Marie, eight years old, who shucks 6 or 7 pots of oysters a day. 

Bayou La Batre, Alabama, 1911

 In center of the picture is Phoebe Thomas, 8 year old Syrian girl, running home from the factory all alone, her hand and arm bathed with blood, crying at the top of her voice. She had cut the end of her thumb nearly off, cutting sardines in the factory, and was sent home alone, her mother being busy. The loss of blood was considerable, and might have been serious. Eastport, Maine, 1911
This is only the first of a series of photos of this girl.

(OK, so this is sardines, not oysters.)

Rosie (left), regular oyster shucker. The smaller one will be working soon. 

Varn and Platt Canning Co. Bluffton, South Carolina, 1913

Arthur Rothstein - More Kids

Another set of photos of kids by Arthur Rothstein.

 Nursery children at the Community Center, Red Hook housing development,
Brooklyn, New York, 1942

 Nursery school, feeding time, FSA camp, Sinton, Texas, 1942

 Nursery school, migratory worker's child, FSA camp, Sinton, Texas, 1942

This may be the single most beautiful child I've ever seen (except my own, of course!).

 The family of a migratory fruit worker from Tennessee now camped in a field near the packinghouse at Winter Haven, Florida, 1937

 Two of Mrs. Brown's grandchildren, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, 1935

 Young bean picker, Cambridge, Maryland, 1937

Younger members of Drake family, FSA camp, Weslaco, Texas, 1942

GG Bain

More from the George Grantham Bain news service. Great slices of life from the early 1900s.

 May Day Parade, New York, 1910

Since today is May Day 2012 it seems appropriate to begin with this.
  

 New York beauties at Atlantic City carnival, 1922

 New York municipal lodging house, 1914

Parade of unemployed, 1909

 Fresh air outing, 1913

 Group of mainly female shirtwaist workers on strike, New York, 1910

Here's some info about the shirtwaist strike.

A shirtwaist was originally a separate blouse constructed like a shirt.

The most infamous disaster to strike sweatshop workers in the early 20th century was the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, in 1911.

 Immigrants in steerage, Friedrich der Grosse

Living on a skyscraper