Children at home in a textile mill community
About this photograph
Lewis Wickes Hine, photographer. From the records of the United States National Child Labor Committee.
- Date created
- November 1908
- Location
- Gastonia, North Carolina
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2009. Terms of use
- Source
- Original image housed by Library of Congress
See this photograph in context
- Child labor in North Carolina's textile mills: The photographs of Lewis Hine show the lives and work of children in North Carolina's textile mill villages in the first decades of the twentieth century. (Page 11)
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for child labor, Gaston County, history, North Carolina, and textile mills.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
The girl in the plaid dress, standing in front of her home in this picture, works in the textile mill in Gastonia, North Carolina. She is twelve years old and has been working at the mill for four years. One of her brothers stands next to her in the picture. A little boy wearing a hat sits on the front steps. Two little girls stand on the porch while their parents stand in the doorway.
The photographer wrote that the Father, Mr. Carswell, said “the wife of neighbor made $7.40 last week, $ 1.40 more than her husband. Women and girls makes more than the men.” The girl said that she “runs sides” and makes 6 sides for 60 cents a day. She will run 8 sides for 80 cents a day soon. Her eight year old sister helps her in the mill.
