Mar 23, 2010 - Sale 2208

Sale 2208 - Lot 27

Unsold
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
HINE, LEWIS W. (1874-1940)
"Coal Breaker Boys, Pittston, Pennsylvania." Silver print, 7 1/2x9 1/2 inches (19.1x24.1 cm.), with Hine's signature, in pencil and his Interpretive Photography hand stamp on verso. 1910; printed 1930s
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Additional Details

Originally from Chicago collector Mickey Pallas; acquired from Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, in 1990.

The Photograph and the American Dream 1840-1940, 84.

American & Lewis Hine, 101.


With the rapid growth of American industry in the first decade of the twentieth century, the number of American children working in mills, mines, bogs, canneries, factories, oyster shucking facilities and farms in the Northeast and South increased exponentially. The role of the National Child Labor Committee was to lobby for legislation that prohibited the hiring of premature workers. In 1908 Hine became a full-time employee, working as staff investigator, photographer, and exhibition designer, positions he held until 1917.


Breaker boys, who worked shifts of 14 to 16 hours a day, were employed by anthracite coal mines to separate slate rock from the coal after the materials were removed from the shaft. Hine observed: "The pieces rattled down through the long chutes at which the breaker boys sat. Sometimes the boys wear lamps in their caps to help them see through the thick dust." A supervisor told Hine ". . . I bet you could shovel fifty pounds of coal dust out of their systems."


Hine made several studies of the children, including posed group portraits both outside and inside the mine. However this iconic image graphically captures the horrific nature of their work environment. A foreman armed with a broom handle, who's not much older than his charges, stands and watches, prepared to rap those who weren't busy or quick enough while a younger supervisor appears at the top area of the picture. The children are hunched over to sort the coal, a position that underscores their vulnerability.


Hine's picture strikes makes accomplished use of of a wide tonal range from light to dark, a visual metaphor he invoked repeatedly in his lectures and writings. The window at top right, which provides the only natural illumination, allows the children to be highlighted. But, ulitmately, the boys are faceless figures engaged in a form of modern servitude and drudgery recalling the Victorian novels of Charles Dickens.