Some of the Young Shrimp Pickers at Biloxi, Mississippi (Primary Title)
Lewis W. Hine, American, 1874 – 1940 (Artist)
Hine particularly abhorred the working conditions in fisheries, returning to photograph them several times. Of his 1911 journey through the South, he remarked, “A line of canning factories stretches along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Louisiana. I have witnessed many varieties of child labor horrors . . . but the climax, the logical conclusion of the ‘laissez-faire’ policy regarding the exploitation of children is to be seen in the oyster-shuckers and shrimp-pickers in that locality.” In this photograph, a young boy stands on a box in order to reach the work surface, a likely affirmation of the photographer’s note that some of the laborers were as young as five.
Typed in black ink on verso: "National Child Labor Committee/ No. 2000./ Some of the young shrimp-pickers at/ (scratched out with graphite) "Dunbar, Lopez, [illegible]". "Sore swollen,/ and even bleeding fingers are common among these workers on account of the acid in/ the shrimp."
Typed in black ink on lower left corner verso: "Biloxi, Miss./ Feb. 20, 1911."
Stamp in red ink on lower right corner verso: "TO BE RETURNED TO".
Typed in black ink on lower right corner verso: "Photo by/ Lewis W. Hine."
Inscribed in unknown hand in black ink on lower left corner verso: "2000".
Inscribed in unknown hand in black ink on verso: "Small boy on box is Manuel/ about five years old, who worked/ last year also. He cannot understand/ English."
Virginia Museum Art Purchase Fund
The Likeness of Labor, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, October 17, 2015 - April 10, 2016
Image released via Creative Commons CC-BY-NC
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