Girl Worker in Carolina Cotton Mill

Lewis Wickes Hine

1908

A gelatin silver portrait of a young girl standing at a cotton mill machine, made by Lewis Wickes Hine to document child labor and press for social reform.

Her steady, direct gaze—framed by a single braid and a ruffled dress—meets the camera as harsh daylight from the window picks out the receding row of spinning machines, turning the industrial interior into an intimate, unsettling encounter.

Part of Hine’s documentary campaign, this photograph helped expose the reality of child labor in early 20th‑century America, advancing labor reform and defining the power of socially engaged photography.

Palette

Art Terms

Gelatin silverprint (developing-out paper) Photography Documentary photography Portrait Social Realism Urbanization Industrialization

Exhibitions

Textiles U.S.A.

1956

Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children

1943

American Folk Art: The Art of the Common Man in America, 1750–1900

1932

Photographs of Women

1971