11:30 A.M. Jennie Rizzandi, 9 year old girl, helping mother and father finish garments in a dilapidated tenement, 5 Extra Pl., N.Y.C. ... (LOC)
Hine, Lewis Wickes,, 1874-1940,, photographer.
11:30 A.M. Jennie Rizzandi, 9 year old girl, helping mother and father finish garments in a dilapidated tenement, 5 Extra Pl., N.Y.C. They all work until 9 P.M. when busy, and make about $2 to $2.50 a week. Father works on street, when he has work. Jennie was a truant, "I staid home 'cause a lady was comin'.-". Location: [New York, New York (State)].
1913 January.
1 photographic print.
Notes:
Title from NCLC caption card.
Attribution to Hine based on provenance.
In album: Tenement homework.
Hine no. 3256.
Subjects:
Adults.
Girls.
Laborers.
Clothing industry.
Sewing.
Home labor.
School attendance.
United States--New York (State)--New York.
Format: Photographic prints
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Part Of: Photographs from the records of the National Child Labor Committee (U.S.) 2004667950
General information about the Lewis Hine child labor photos is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.nclc
Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/nclc.04306
Call Number: LOT 7481, no. 3256
Comments and faves
OliveRyan, Posteriormente, getolina, heinrick05, and 74 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Eli the Bearded (5 months ago | reply)
Minimum wage for a textile worker in Bangladesh is now about $43 a month. How far we've come.
artolog (5 months ago | reply)
Extra Place is a little alley off E. 1st St., near the Bowery, now seemingly stumbling into gentrification. New York's Tenement Museum, www.tenement.org, not far away, has some restored tenement apartments that resemble this one, where garment piece work like the family here is doing, was frequently done. I recommend a visit and a tour with their incredibly knowledgeable docents. Work like this was typically done by the front window (tenements typically had only one room with an outside window), because of the better light.
www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/nyregion/29street. html
vanishingnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/01/extra-p lace.html
Cassies grandma (5 months ago | reply)
And yet they had lace on the shelf to the left and what looks like crystal on the buffet. We own a clock much like the one here. These people had dignity even if they had to work hard through their lives.
TerryJohnPratt (5 months ago | reply)
Children laboring before they should is bad. But today's youth should labor more.
I am sure this family would have loved a free check every week.
Who ends up in the long run with the most respect for themselves??
JimReeves (5 months ago | reply)
Just looking at all the small (and big) items in the photograph, it was clear that that they never compromised on quality or dignity in their personal life.
bentwhisker (5 months ago | reply)
And this was true even before our economic woes.
Cassies grandma (5 months ago | reply)
My comments were not in any way meant to endorse child labor. I was only commenting on how people can retain some dignity even when it is bone crushing hard to do so.
jack byrnes hill (over 1 million views) (5 months ago | reply)
Although there is not two sides to the child labor issue, there is the point that if that child is their daughter, which I assume it is, then she is helping the family. Today you see that all over China town and anywhere there is a small family-run business. I can't tell you the number of stores that are run by the families (italians, chinese, pakistanis etc) whose kids help out at the store before they are old enough to go to school and then after school hours they are in the store helping. My wife's taiwanese hairdresser who started her business from the ground up when she came over here dirt poor, now has a couple of girls ages 10 and 12 and they come in after school and sweep up, mind the phones etc. It is teaching them a work ethic other kids are not getting.
JMBower (5 months ago | reply)
without comment on the horrendousness that is expecting kids to work all day, or what I'm sure the conditions were in this "dilapidated tenement", I can't help but notice the furniture and hardware. What was "dilapidated" to the photographer, and I'm sure to many of the era, seems to be far in advance in terms of quality and craftsmanship as compared to most of the junk that fills our homes these days.
Cassies grandma (5 months ago | reply)
you are so right. I would love those dining chairs!