Oct 15, 2015 - Sale 2393

Sale 2393 - Lot 63

Price Realized: $ 11,700
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
(HINE, LEWIS W.) (1874-1940)
"Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner, Lancaster, South Carolina." Silver print, 6 3/4x9 inches (17.1x22.8 cm), with a news agency's hand stamps, a Library of Congress reproduction hand stamp, and various other stamps and notations, in pencil, on verso. 1908; printed 1940s
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Additional Details

Originally from the Jay Culver Family Collection.

The Library of Congress, which is the primary repository for the National Child Labor Committee's original negatives and prints, produced photographic prints, on demand, on a fiber-based paper.

Hine's original caption for this image reads: "One of the many children at work in Carolina cotton mills--1908. A regular worker,--48 inches high." The height of the young girl at work--a scant 4 feet--works powerfully with Hine's composition, which allows the viewer to see the comparative size of the machine she stands next to and the bleakness of her surroundings. Her head bowed, and her hand resting on the machine in front of her, along with the light filtering in from the right, highlights Hine's gift for powerful social documentary.