Lewis Hine Farm Boy Photograph

Farm Boy, NY – Lewis Wicks Hine (American, 1824-1940). Hine presumably took this photograph between 1910-1920. This brilliant photograph inscribed “farm boy, NY” in an unknown hand is undated and from the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York’s collection. It was part of a deaccessioned Eastman collection that became part of an extensive private collection of black and white American photographs documenting life in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century.

The silver gelatin photograph dates to the 1960s-1970s. Similar to the photographers of the FSA, Hine also used his camera and a tool for social reform. Hine’s images aided the NCLC’s efforts to prohibit child labor, and the Children’s Bureau was established in 1912. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was the law that put an end to child labor in the United States. 

A wonderful image of photographic artwork from a legendary and brilliant American photographer.. Information regarding the photograph and related provenance related to the George Eastman House is hand stamped on the back of the sheet in addition to the handwritten title and date, in pencil, with the museum catalog number.

Hine’s son Corydon donated his prints and negatives to the Photo League after his father’s death in 1951. The Museum of Modern Art declined to accept his paintings, but the George Eastman House did and retained a large collection of his original images and glass plate negatives.

The image measures 10 x 8 inches. The image measures 9.5 x 7.5 inches.

The sheet has toning and wear on the corner edges.