From the Library of Congress Archives, Lewis Hine's Child Labor Research Brought Him to Dallas in the Fall of 1913

From time to time over the years, we've perused the Library of Congress's archives for photos of Dallas not seen since they were first taken decades ago. But Friend of Unfair Park PeterK, who shares my love for these vintage pictures, sends word of myriad recent additions to the collection,...

By Robert Wilonsky

April 1, 2010

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From time to time over the years, we've perused the Library of Congress's archives for photos of Dallas not seen since they were first taken decades ago. But Friend of Unfair Park PeterK, who shares my love for these vintage pictures, sends word of myriad recent additions to the collection, which we'll get to in due time -- they're not going anywhere, after all.

Still, this one caught my eye this afternoon -- perhaps because one year ago we ran this widescreen shot of a 1924 paper boy convention outside the Adolphus Hotel. This one dates back even further -- to 1913 and a series of famous photos taken by Lewis Wickes Hine, who was commissioned by the National Child Labor Commission in 1908 to document underage workers being abused by employers. Three years ago, National Public Radio ran a story about Massachusetts historian Joe Manning, who, to this very day, is trying to track down some of the families of the children captured in those famous, forgotten photos.

For our purposes, then, we begin here: with a photo titled "Six-year old boy, Louis Shuman, and his 11 year old brother. Dallas Newsboys. The little fellow usually has a brother who makes him do most of the work. Dallas has too many of these little newsies." According to LoC records, this dates back to October 1913 and was part indeed of Hine's NCLC work.

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