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Lewis Hine Born
Born in Oshkosh, Wisconin -
Moves to New York
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Appointed as the Nature Study and Geography Educator at the Ethical Culture School in New York
Ethical Culture School Educational Ideals
The school expressed a faith in the ability of Americans to solve social issues. They taught that basic social order and human nature were good. Public opinion, therefore, can be guided by the rational hand of scientiffically trained technical experts coud alleviate poverty and class conflict by publicizing the plight of the poor. -
Lewis Hine's First Photographic Experience
Climbing Into America, 1908Took his students to photogrpah immigrants arriving at Ellis Island and soon after, he began photographing immigrants himself. -
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Photographs Child Labor for the NCLC
NCLC PhotographsDr. Felix Adler, who established the Ethical Culture Society and the National Child Labor Committee comissioned Hine to travel around the United States to photograph the poor coniditons children faced working in factory conditions. He takes over 5000 images and often has to disguise himself in order to phograph within the factories. -
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The Pittsburgh Survey
The Pittsburgh SurveyWorked as a freelance photographer for The Survey, a leading social reform magazine at the time.He created a multivolume study of the conditions of working-class life of Pittsburgh- his photographs were presented in an ojbective manner. -
Joins the American Red Cross
Red Cross Group In Sewing Room, ca. 1918-1935The aftermath of American involvement in World War I had dampened enthusiasm for reform movements. Hine joined an American Red Cross expedition to the Balkans, where he documented the relief efforts. He continues to work for the Red Cross through the 1930s. -
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Western Electric News Photographs of Female Laborers
Makers of the Nation's Telephones, 1924He is commissoned by the Western Electric Company to take photgraphs for its employee magazine, Western Electric News. He took artful photographs of women workers laboring in perfect harmony with technology. He was hired by the company to promote productivity and loyalty by giving workers recognition through photographs that identify them by name. -
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Photographs the Construction of The Empire State Building
In 1930 and 1931, he documented the construction of the Empire State Building, resulting in an exhibition and a book for young people, Men at Work (1932). To get the proper angle for certain pictures of the skyscraper, Hine had himself swung out over the city streets in a basket or bucket suspended from a crane or similar device. -
Men At Work
NY Times Article "Hine was hired to photograph all aspects of the building's construction, but it is obvious from his photographs that he found his most stirring subject in the structural ironworkers. These men — "sky boys," as Hine would come to call them — raised the building's steel frame, balancing on airy perches to join columns and beams, leading the way upward as the other trades followed from below. A tight-knit, swashbuckling clan of Newfoundlanders, Mohawk Indians, Scandinavians and Irish-Americans..." -
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National Research Project
Worker Pressing Rubber Bodies, 1936Takes photograps for the NRP- its purpose was to investigate recent changes in industrial techniques and evaluate their effects on employment. The images present general views of the community, working conditions in factories, machinery, and workers, are pictured for each photo study.
