26 Incredible Colorized Photos That Show Daily Life of Laborers in the Early 20th Century

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Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940) was an American sociologist and photographer who used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States.

These incredible photographs he shot that were colorized by Rob van den Berg showing the daily life  laborers in the United States from between the 1900s and 1920s.

10 yr. old girl tending stand at 4th and Garden Streets. On right is entrance to bar room of saloon. Stand is owned by
Mr. Rakoff, whose daughters, 11 yrs and 13 yrs old, take turns, tending it. Fanny Rakoff, 11 years old, often tends stand till 7:30 p.m, Hoboken, New Jersey, December 1912 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

3 girls working in Salvan Medicine Factory and in a seed store, Olive near 14th St., St. Louis, Missouri, May 12th, 1910
(by Lewis Wickes Hine)

A heavy load for an old woman, Lafayette St., below Astor Place, New York (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

A little girl laborer, New York, March 1924 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Adolescents and other in Payne Cotton Mill, Macon, Georgia. Girl on end with dropping eyelids has been helping there one year, Jan. 20, 1909 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

An enforced rest. Harry Swope, aged 15, carrying heavy bundles of paper for a News & Sta’y Co., 426 Elm St., Newport, Kentucky, August 1908 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Betsay [i.e., Betsey] Price, first year high school at her club sewing, Marlinton, West Virginia, October 7, 1921
(by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Bootblacks in and around City Hall Park, New York City, July 25, 1924 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Boys going to work in Warren Mfg. Co., Warren, Rhode Island. Plenty of youngsters here, 6 a.m, June 10, 1909
(by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Carrying home decayed refuse from markets, Boston, Massachusetts, October 1909 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Eleven-year-old bakery worker Glenn Dungey, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, April 1917 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

‘Fire-Fire – I Want to Make the Fire.’ An Italian boy on Salem Street Saturday morning, offering to make fires for Jewish people, Boston, Massachusetts, October 1909 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Francis Manning, 406 Main St., Palmer, Massachusetts, September 1911 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Going home to dinner, Newberry Mills, Newberry, South Carolina, December 3, 1908  (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Lawrence Collins has doffed for years in the Lancaster Cotton Mills, Lancaster, South Carolina, December 1908
(by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Newberry Mills at noon. All are working here, Newberry, South Carolina, December 1908 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Newsboy, 12 years of age. Selling newspapers 2 years. Average earnings 20 cents daily. Selling newspapers own choice. Father earns $18 weekly. Boy deposits earnings in du Pont Savings Bank, and on Saturday night works for Reynold’s candy shop, delivering packages. Don’t smoke. Visits saloons. Works 5 hours daily, except Saturday, when he works 11,
E. 22nd St., Wilmington, Delaware, May 1910 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Newsie, St. Louis, Missouri, May 1910 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

One of the workers (not the youngest) in the Kosciusko cotton mills. The superintendent objected to my photographing the workers, Kosciusko, Mississippi, November 1913 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

One of the young doffers in Avondale Mills, Birmingham, Alabama, November 1910 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Some adolescents in a Georgia Cotton Mill, Georgia, January 1909 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

The dependent widower, Meridian, Mississippi, April 1911 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

This boy has been working in Warren Mfg. Co., Warren, Rhode Island, one year. June 10, 1909 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Tired woman with heavy load of home-work on Lafayette St., near Astor Place, New York, February 1912
(by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Two of the tiny workers, a raveler and a looper in Loudon Hosiery Mills, Loudon, Tennessee, December 1910
(by Lewis Wickes Hine)

Workers in the Nokomis Cotton Mill, Lexington, North Carolina. The smallest boy said he was 11 years old and makes 50 cents a day. Been doffing there for some months. The band boy who seems much younger would not be photographed.
Also several other young workers, October 1912 (by Lewis Wickes Hine)

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