Records of the Past: Lewis Hine Child Labor Photographs

A landmark photographic series by Lewis Hine offers a direct look at early twentieth-century labor conditions and the role of visual evidence in shaping social reform.

Records of the Past: Lewis Hine Child Labor Photographs presents 60 images from the National Child Labor Committee, selected from nearly 300 works by Hine held in the Margulies Collection. As a staff photographer for the committee shortly after its founding in 1904, Hine documented mills, factories and other worksites where children labored in violation of emerging laws. His photographs, paired with his typed or handwritten field notes, were intended to bring public attention to unsafe conditions and galvanize political action.

By displaying both the images and the original notes on their reverse sides, the exhibition offers a fuller understanding of Hine’s process and the evidentiary power of documentary photography. Curated by Jeanie Ambrosio, it provides a historical record of a period when visual documentation helped drive the movement for child labor protections.

The exhibition runs November 12-April 4 at the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, with extended Art Basel Miami Beach hours from Monday through Saturday, December 1-6, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., with coffee served each morning.