The Lewis Hine photograph collection is a rather extensive collection that portrays society from 1874-1940. He particularly focuses on child labor in America but from the photographs other aspects of society where exposed. My paper is going to briefly explain some aspects of the American society I noticed from the pictures and compare or contrast with what was covered in class. At the turn of the 19th century a significant portion of the American families were in the working class and a significant potion of the people in the class had barely enough or just about enough to survive. The impoverishment of the American society was extreme, even more so the effect it had on working class families. During industrialization the working class families had to under go some changes, modify the family system in other to survive this new but harsh times.
From the photographs the most prominent observation is child labor. Boys from the age of 8 are partakers of the labor force. Though now in the 21st century that would be seen as child abuse and exploitation of children it was very common in the industrial period. Though this was not the first time in history that children worked, it was a first that they worked outside of the home and often times not in the supervision of their parents as well as the…show more content… In one of the photographs (game of craps) a couple of children were gambling. Gambling is an unscrupulous activity and almost illegal in the present day America, so to see that young children were partaking in such an activity was rather disappointing. Another picture shows a 9-year-old boy who was smoking and playing pool. This shows the level of child neglect in working class families during the industrialization period in America; though not intentional and as a result of the harsh circumstances but nonetheless
