The Lewis Hine Project: Tracking Down the Lives of Child Laborers

Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011 
Time: 7-8:30 p.m.
Location: Lowell National Historical Park, Visitor Center Theater

"Whatever happened to that child worker?"  Motivated by this question, Joe Manning has identified some of the more than 5,000 child laborers photographed in the early 1900s by Lewis Hine, and has tracked down and interviewed their descendants.  Many of these children were textile workers in New England, including Addie Card, a young mill worker who inspired Elizabeth Winthrop’s popular historical novel Counting on Grace.  Manning will show some of Hine’s historic photographs, tell the stories of the children in them, and talk about the exciting process of searching for descendants, most of whom were not aware of the pictures of their parents and grandparents. 

Joe Manning is an author, historian and freelance journalist. His Lewis Hine Project, has been featured on several National Public Radio news programs, and in Yankee Magazine.

Part of the 2011-2012 Moses Greeley Parker Lecture Series.

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Partnership

The Tsongas Industrial History Center is an education partnership between the University of Massachusetts Lowell School of Education and the National Park Service at Lowell National Historical Park.

  • UMass Lowell
  • National Park Service