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Lewis Hine New York City newsboys album

Call Number

PR 188

Date

circa 1908-1912, 1921, inclusive

Creator

Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940

Extent

.21 Linear feet in one box

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

Collection consists of 43 photographs, mounted on loose album pages of gray paper, of New York City newsboys (or "newsies") probably taken by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee circa 1908-1912. All photographs are captioned with the subject's name, age, address, school, whether they had a badge or not, and the location of the photograph.

Biographical / Historical

American photographer and social reformer Lewis Hine commenced working for the National Child Labor Committee on a freelance basis in 1906; he was eventually employed by the Committee as an investigative photographer to document the working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908-1921.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in its original page order.

Scope and Contents

Collection consists of 43 gelatin bromide prints, 5.5 x 3.2 in., with two prints measuring 2.25 x 1.25 in., mounted on loose album pages of gray paper, 10 x 7 in. of photographs of New York City newsboys probably taken by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee ca. 1908-1912.

Photographs are chiefly posed, full length portraits of New York newsboys (commonly referred to as "newsies"), reported ages 6 to 14 years, pictured singly or in pairs, selling newspapers on the sidewalks of Manhattan or Brooklyn, and frequently including views of storefronts and passersby in the background. Typed caption labels recording the subject's name, age, address, school, whether they had a badge or not, and the location of the photograph, accompany individual prints. Also included is a single portrait of an 11 year old newsgirl, a photograph showing a group of 6 newsboys playing cards beside the Times Building while waiting for papers, 3 images of disabled men selling newspapers on the streets of New York City, and a photograph of a sidewalk stand displaying out of town papers.

The container list below includes select information taken from the captions (name, age, and photo location). None of the documents are dated, but when the album was processed in 2003 by curator Holly Hinman, the dates of the photographs were placed between 1908 and 1912 and the date of the album ascompiled in 1921.

Conditions Governing Access

Available by advance appointment only. To schedule an appointment, contact the Print Room Librarian at printroom@nyhistory.org.

Conditions Governing Use

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to:

Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org, 212-485-9228 .

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as: Lewis Hine New York City Newsboys Album, PR 188, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Charles Schwartz, 2002.

Collection processed by

Holly Hinman (2003), Larry Weimer (2019)

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:54 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English.

Processing Information

The collection was processed by Holly Hinman in 2003. Loose album pages with mounted prints were removed from the black cloth album binding; individual prints were removed from the original album pages, backed with acid-free paper, and reattached to the original paper mounts.

Hinman's hard-copy finding aid was converted to an on-line version, with some additional description, by archivist Larry Weimer in February 2019.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024