Due to labor shortages, the number of children under the age of 15 who worked in industrial jobs climbed from 1.5 million in 1890 to 2 million in 1910.

Due to labor shortages, the number of children under the age of 15 who worked in industrial jobs climbed from 1.5 million in 1890 to 2 million in 1910.

At the same time, public concern over this problematic practice grew, and the National Child Labor Committee was founded in 1904. 

The Committee hired Lewis Hine, a schoolteacher and photographer, to catalog instances of child labor.

His extensive collection, which can be found at the US National Archives, shows the pervasive nature of child labor throughout American society, not just in factories.

In this photo, Hine captured a family of acrobats, a 23-year-old father with his 5- and 3-year-old sons. His youngest son started performing with the circus when he was just ten and half months old.

In the photo’s caption, Hine remarks, “the children are bright and strong, but have a playfulness about them which shows them to have forgotten the best years of their childhood.

As a result of  lobbying by the National Child Labor Committee, Congress passed the Keating-Owens Act in 1916 that established the child labor standards, such as maximum eight-hour work day and minimum ages for more dangerous professions, such as mining.

By 1920, the number of child laborers was cut to nearly half of what it had been in 1910. Today, organizations across the globe continue to fight for children’s rights.