Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan:
Photographs of Lewis Hine: Documentation of Child Labor
Teaching Activities
Standards Correlations
This lesson correlates to the National History Standards.
This lesson correlates to the National Standards for Civics and Government.
Constitutional Connection
This lesson relates to the First Amendment rights, including freedom
of the press and right of the people to petition the government for a
redress of grievances.
Cross-curricular Connections
Share this exercise with your history, government, language arts, and
business law colleagues.
Activities
Brainstorming
-
Write the Lewis Hine quote that introduces the Background Information
on the board and ask students to discuss it in relation to labor in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then ask if they can draw
a correlation to labor today. Next, provide students with background
information on Lewis Hine and the child labor movement at the turn
of the century. Be certain to discuss Hine's use of photography and
its value to the reform movement. Finally, ask how many students have
a family album of photographs. Ask: Why do we take and keep photographs?
What information can you gather from photographs? How can historians
use photographs? What information can historians gather from photographs?
Discuss the issues of the photographer's point of view in taking pictures.
Photograph Analysis
-
Print out a copy of Document
1 and reproduce it on a transparency. Use this photograph
to demonstrate to the students techniques in photo analysis. Give
students a few minutes to look at the photograph. Turn off the projector,
and ask them to write down everything they saw in the photograph.
After a few minutes, ask students to share their findings. They will
probably have some conflicting views; some students will see things
that others have not seen or, in some cases, claim to have seen things
not present in the photograph. Cut an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper
into four parts. Place these four parts over the picture so that you
can reveal one section of the photograph at a time, keeping the rest
of the picture covered. Ask students to look closely at the area that
is revealed and describe what they see in the photograph. This will
draw their attention to the details of the photograph. After students
have had an opportunity to view each section, uncover the whole photograph
and ask them how what they now see in the photograph has changed.
-
Divide students into small groups. Give each group a copy of one
of the featured photographs from the Hine collection. The photographs
can be printed from the digitized image, or they can be downloaded
onto a disk and each group can work from the image on their computers.
If your classroom has the advantage of Internet access, students can
locate their photographs through the National Archives Web site by
using the control number for the assigned photographs (these are listed
below). Next, ask each group to study the selected photograph as they
did in the demonstration. Then distribute the Photograph Analysis Worksheet
developed by the National Archives education staff and direct students
to complete the questions. After each group has completed its analysis,
ask them to share their photographs and the information from their
analyses. Each group should answer the question: What does this photograph
tell you about child labor at the turn of the century?
Creative Writing
-
As a creative writing assignment, ask each group from Activity 3
to create a story around its photograph that addresses the issues
of child labor. Possible issues include safety on the job, inability
to get an education, health hazards in the work environment, general
health of young children, the movement to abolish child labor, and
general living conditions of the era.
-
For an independent creative writing assignment, ask students to create
a diary entry for a person in one of the photographs. Direct students
to describe in detail the person's workday and explain his or her
reasons for working and feelings about the job.
Class Discussion
-
At the conclusion of these activities, lead a class discussion about
the issues of labor and the role of the government. Ask: Should the
government regulate labor in private industry? Why or why not? How
far should regulation go? How can companies be held responsible for
working conditions? What labor regulations are in effect today? How
and why were these regulations established?
-
Poll students to find out how many have jobs. Ask: What jobs do you
hold? What procedures required by the federal or state government
did you have to follow before you could be employed? What are the
regulations you have to follow in your particular jobs? Were you advised
of safety rules or hour restrictions? What are the dangers of your
particular jobs? Do you feel you have adequate protection as employed
minors? What would you change about your jobs? Create a list of job-related
problems students have today. Ask: What are the obstacles you face
if you try to change your working conditions. Brainstorm ideas about
how students can address these labor issues in their own employment
and create an action plan.
Interactive Computer Activity
-
As an interactive computer activity utilizing the Internet and multimedia,
divide students into teams of 2 to 4 students. Direct each team to
use the Archival Research Catalog (ARC)
database to search the photographs of Lewis Hine. They only need to
use the keyword "Lewis Hine." Challenge the students on each team
to identify 10 photographs that they feel best tell the story of child
labor during the early 1900s. Teams should download their chosen photographs
and create multimedia presentations for the class explaining and defending
their choices. Explain that the evaluation will be based on their
use of the Internet, incorporation of multimedia, and understanding
of child labor issues at the turn of the century.
The phographs included in this project are from Record Group 102, Records
of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Children's Bureau. They are available
online through the Archival Research Catalog (ARC)
identifiers:
523065
523070
523071
523072
523076
523077
523080
523088
523090
523100
523162
523166
523174
523205
523215
523246
Each is accompanied by a significant caption written by Lewis Hine.
ARC
replaces its prototype, the NARA Archival Information Locator (NAIL).
You can still perform a keyword, digitized image and location search.
ARC's advanced functionalities also allow you to search by organization,
person, or topic.
ARC is a searchable database that contains information about a wide variety
of NARA holdings across the country. You can use ARC to search record
descriptions by keywords or topics and retrieve digital copies of selected
textual documents, photographs, maps, and sound recordings related to
thousands of topics.
Currently, about 13% of NARA's vast holdings have been described in ARC.
124,000 digital images can be searched in ARC. In keeping with NARA's
Strategic Plan, the percentage of holdings described in ARC will grow
continually.
This article was written by Linda Darus Clark, a teacher at Padua Franciscan
High School in Parma, Ohio.
Lewis Hine Photographs Main Page
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