Ivey Mill, Hickory, N.C. Little one, 3 years old, who visits and plays in the mill. Daughter of the overseer.
Trained as a sociologist at Columbia University, Hine gave up his New York City teaching job in 1908 to become a full-time photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. Created four years earlier, the reform agency's success was largely dependent on its ability to sway public opinion. Influenced by Jacob Riis's pictures of slum conditions on New York's Lower East Side, Hine obsessively documented the working conditions of children in mills, factories, and fields across the country. The results—more than five thousand photographs in all—were used in field reports, exhibitions, pamphlets, and slide lectures. Hine's decidedly unromantic, understated pictures served as a potent weapon of persuasion. The camera's ability to amplify the idiosyncratic, telling detail also gave each of his subjects the simple, irreducible integrity of a single human life.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ivey Mill, Hickory, N.C. Little one, 3 years old, who visits and plays in the mill. Daughter of the overseer.
- Artist: Lewis Hine (American, 1874–1940)
- Date: November 1898
- Medium: Gelatin silver print
- Dimensions: Image: 11.7 x 16.9 cm (4 5/8 x 6 5/8 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Bequest of Edwin De T. Bechtel, by exchange, 1970
- Object Number: 1970.588.6
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.