Newsies, Joseph and Rosy, 10 and 8 years old. Newark, New Jersey.

Trained as a sociologist and recognizing the power of photography to sway public opinion and to create social change, Lewis Hine gave up his teaching job in 1908 and went to work full time as a photographer for the recently formed National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). His photographs of young children working in fields, factories, mills, and mines were reproduced in pamphlets and display materials of the NCLC and helped raise awareness of the plight of child workers, eventually leading to protective legislation. It is a measure of how bad life could be that the two young “newsies” in this photograph project an air of good fortune. Hine’s caption reads: “Joseph and Rosy, 10 and 8 yrs old. He sells until evening. She is one of 5 or 6 girls who sell (afternoons) in Newark.”