The National Child Labor Committee photographic prints came to the Library of Congress mounted in albums, generally grouped by the industry represented. The Prints and Photographs Division clustered the albums into nine groups (LOTs) on the basis of their subject matter. Each LOT may consist of one or more albums. Within the albums, the photographs are in order by the original number assigned to the image at the NCLC.

In 2003, the Library of Congress arranged to digitize all the photographic prints and the glass negatives in the collection. Prints and Photographs Division staff prepared catalog records for the images, primarily transcribing information from the original caption cards that came to the Library of Congress with the collection. (For further information, see "Cataloging the Collection.") All of the digitized photos and catalog records are available through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. The photographic prints are also available on three reels of microfilm.

The contents of each LOT are summarized below.

LOT 7475 - AGRICULTURE (733 photographic prints in 3 albums)

The emphasis is on field work and agricultural activities, but images also depict workers' housing conditions and schools. Includes cranberry picking in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin; berry harvesting in Delaware and Maryland; tobacco farming in Kentucky and Connecticut; beet topping in Colorado; cotton picking in Texas and Oklahoma; dairy farming in New England. A few images are of African American schools in Kentucky and Oklahoma and public health activities in Oklahoma. Also includes a few maps and pamphlets on child labor. [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7476 - CANNERIES (301 photographic prints in 1 album)

Includes workers involved in seafood, fruit and vegetable packing, seen both at work and posed outside work sites in Buffalo, New York; Seaford, Delaware; Maine; Indiana; Maryland; South Carolina; Louisiana; Alabama; Mississippi; and Florida. Workers' housing conditions are shown, including some interiors. A few images document children's work-related injuries, as well as schools (poorly) attended by child laborers. Also included are a few record photographs of maps and documents, including records made by a New York State factory investigating commission. Note: One image of Mississippi mill workers (Hine #1967) was mistakenly included in this LOT. [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7477 - COAL MINES (100 photographic prints in 1 album)

Boys photographed in mine interiors and exteriors in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Alabama, as well as boys involved in zinc mining in Aurora, Missouri. Includes documentation of work related injuries, as well as mining equipment and conditions. Also includes a photograph showing conflicting information on one worker's baptismal record versus what was stated on his age certificate, to show how his age was falsified. [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7478 - GLASS FACTORIES (156 photographic prints in 1 album)

Includes work activities and portraits in glass and bottling factories in Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Missouri, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Alexandria, Virginia. Work sites in the latter two locations include an integrated work force of white and black workers. Images document working conditions and work hours, showing workers at their lunch breaks and working at night. Also includes exhibit panels that use the images to portray child labor and its consequences (Hine #3514, 3744, 3745, and 3745-A). [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7479- MILLS (1,815 photographic prints in 7 albums)

Primarily documents cotton mill activities, but also includes images showing other kinds of manufacturing, such as furniture factories and silk mills. Includes portraits of workers, work activities, and documentation of housing conditions, family situations, schooling, children's recreational activities, work-related injuries, and factory health facilities. A few images document what were considered examples of good management practices in, for instance, a Mobile, Alabama, cotton mill. Includes factory sites in Alabama; Connecticut; Delaware; Georgia; Indiana; Louisiana; Maine; Massachusetts; Mississippi; New Hampshire; New York; North Carolina; Ohio; Rhode Island; South Carolina; Tennessee; Texas; Vermont; and Virginia. Also included are photographs of a few signs (advertising work, warning against waste), children's work certificates, clippings, and cartoons, as well as exhibit panels in which the images are used to protest child labor practices. Note: One image relating to a Pennsylvania coal mine (#3504) was mistakenly included in this LOT. [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7480 - STREET TRADES (861 photographic prints in 3 albums)

Primarily newspaper sellers (including boys, girls, and a few adult "newsies"), bootblacks, messenger and delivery boys, and food vendors, but other service workers such as bowling alley pinsetters, movie theater ushers, delivery wagon drivers, and one youthful automobile chauffeur in Oklahoma are also included. Images include posed portraits; work activities, emphasizing hours (including night work) and weather conditions in which children worked; recreational activities ("rough-housing," street games); habits considered potentially damaging to children (unsafe streetcar riding practices, smoking, spending earnings on movies); and facilities and activities offered by organizations such as the Newsboys' Protective Association (e.g., reading rooms, showers). Some images document street life in the city--including outdoor markets, signs, and modes of transportation. Locations include: Alabama; California; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Indiana; Kentucky; Massachusetts; Missouri; New York; New Jersey; Ohio; Oklahoma; Rhode Island; Tennessee; Texas; Vermont; Virginia; Washington, D.C. Also included are photographs of exhibit panels that use the images to protest child labor practices in the street trades. [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7481 - TENEMENT HOMEWORK (265 photographic prints in 1 album)

Includes various homework industries: garment work, embroidery, button stringing, artificial flower making, jewelry work, cigarette making, nut picking; tooth brush making. The images depict tenement interiors with families at work; adults and children carrying large bundles of work through city streets; exteriors emphasizing housing and sanitation conditions. Most photographs were taken in the New York metropolitan area (particularly the Lower East Side), but homework in Massachusetts and Rhode Island is also represented. Also includes a few images of children playing with "Campbell Kid" dolls made by tenement workers, one newspaper want ad for home workers, and exhibit panels protesting home labor. [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7482 - CHILDREN IN WEST VIRGINIA (110 photographic prints in 1 album)

Investigation of housing conditions and schools, primarily in rural West Virginia, October 1921. Images showing white and black children in school and engaging in 4-H activities are emphasized; a few images show poor sanitation practices with respect to school outhouse facilities. Also included are images of poor housing in mining areas and farms, as well as more "prosperous" farms. [retrieve images from this LOT]

LOT 7483 - MISCELLANEOUS CHILD LABOR (812 photographic prints in 3 albums)

Includes child labor in a variety of trades: furniture manufacturing, lumber industry, marble polishing, basket and broom manufacturing, shoe industry, meat packing, cigar and cigarette making, candy making and service work in department stores, ice cream parlors, pool halls, and bowling alleys. A few images of child vaudeville performers are also included. In many cases, workers are shown going to or coming from work or collecting pay, rather than engaging in work activities. Procedures intended to regulate labor practices, such as obtaining work certificates, are included. Images documenting work-related injuries and health care activities are included, as are a few "posture photos." Also shown are children scavenging for food and fuel and informal recreational activities, including boys playing craps on streets, "hanging around," and leaping on streetcars. Activities offered by boys' clubs and settlement houses, and playground activities, including baseball, are also featured. Schools, particularly for immigrants, and vocational education activities are depicted. Also included are a substantial number of exhibit panels dealing with labor issues--a few show actual exhibit installations; some exhibit objects and cartoons; as well as portraits of officials of the National Child Labor Committee, including Owen Lovejoy and Jane Addams, and groups of female factory inspectors. Locations represented include: Alabama; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Indiana; Kentucky; Massachusetts; Michigan (1 image); Missouri; New York; North Carolina; Oklahoma; Rhode Island; Texas; Vermont; Virginia; Washington, D.C. [retrieve images from this LOT]