On The Road With The Lewis Hine Project

Announcement: I will make a special presentation in Eastport, Maine regarding my research about the sardine cannery workers that were photographed there in 1911. The event will take place at the Peavey Memorial Library, in Eastport, on Monday, August 9, 2010, at 7:00. The event is free. For more information, call the library at 207-853-4021.

On The Road With The Lewis Hine Project

Since October of 2006, I have been making presentations, with pictures, about the Lewis Hine Project at schools, colleges, libraries, museums and other venues all over New England. Here’s where I’ve been and a few notes about each visit. I will update this page as new events occur, and post upcoming appearances.

MARCH 2010: Hillsboro-Deering Middle School, Hillsboro, New Hampshire I made my third presentation to classes at this school. It's a beautiful 95-minute drive from my home, and the students are bright and ask good questions. This has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

MARCH 2010: Teaching American History Program Conference, Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts I made presentations for two groups of history teachers, and suggested some similar research projects for students, in order to get them involved in local history. More than 100 teachers gather here every year for this workshop.

I made my second presentation to classes at this school. It was another good session with plenty of questions and comments. I have been invited to visit again this March (2010).

AUGUST 2009: Hillsboro-Deering Middle School, Hillsboro, New Hampshire I made a presentation to about 75 students from the seventh and eighth grades. I got lots of questions and comments, and it was a nice trip to this lovely little town. The beautiful school was built recently. I also had a tasty lunch at the friendly Hillsboro Diner, a classic 1961 Kullman diner, with a dining room added on.

JUNE 2009: Hastings-On-Hudson, New York Lewis Hine lived in Hastings from 1914, until his death in 1940. I made a 90-minute presentation to the Hastings Historical Society's annual meeting. There were over 50 people in the audience. It was exciting to be in Hine's adopted home town and to talk with persons who have considerable knowledge about his impact on the community. I even saw the house he lived in, which is still a private residence. I took a picture of it. See the link below.

MAY AND JUNE 2009: North Adams Public Schools, North Adams, Mass This was quite a gig. In the space of two weeks, I gave presentations to all seven of the fifth grade classes in the city, each lasting 60-90 minutes. On June 3, I did three in a row. It was exhilarating but exhausting, because the students were entirely engaged, asking dozens of questions. Since they are in the age group of most of the child laborers I talked about, they easily identified with their stories. I hope these children never lose their enthusiasm and curiosity.

I had a full house! Thanks to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts for sponsoring this event at their great downtown art gallery. It was thoroughly enjoyable evening.

I made a two-hour presentation for a Senior Symposia class. There was a large turnout of 47 students. Among the Lewis Hine photos I showed were those taken in area towns and cities: North Adams, Northampton and Winchendon. One of the students came up to me after the event and identified himself as Joe Manning (no relation), of nearby Northfield. We exchanged business cards.

This was my second visit to the sixth grade class. These students were just as informed and enthusiastic as last year’s. There were lots of questions and strong and insightful opinions. It was a delightful, if very short hour.

This was a terrific venue. There are four great museums on this site. My presentation was at the Museum of Fine Arts, and about 75 to 80 people attended. A woman in the audience came up to me after the presentation and showed me copies of some Hine photos taken in Winchendon, Massachusetts, a town about 75 minutes from where I live. She said that she thought one of the girls in the photos was her great aunt, and she asked me to look into it. I jumped at the chance, and have since poured myself into another exciting adventure. See link to the Winchendon project on the Lewis Hine Project home page.

Professor Todd Wemmer, who created the Lost and Found Photos project, invited me to talk to one of his classes. The students were eager participants, and stuck around for an extra 25 minutes. My wife and I stayed overnight, compliments of the college, and had a great lunch at the Salem Diner, just across the bay from Beverly. See www.lostandfoundphotos.org

The third grade class I worked with was a joy. They really knew their stuff! I started off by asking them if they had a job. A dozen hands went up right away: “I take out the garbage” – “I dry the dishes” – “I feed the dog” – “I vacuum.” So I asked them if they did this job 12 hours a day, with 15 minutes for lunch, six days a week, like the child laborers in the photos. They got the point. After class, one boy told me I look like Lewis Hine. This is the third time this happened. At this point, I am beginning to believe it.

My wife and I drove three hours to this lovely old colonial town, about 45 minutes south of Burlington. The night before, they had a serious ice storm, but everything worked out fine. One of the audience members was Mary Williamson, a niece of Lewis Hine, who lives nearby. It was a thrill to meet her. Once again, someone told me that I look like Hine.

I showed slides from my Lewis Hine Project and led a discussion about researching old photographs. Hampshire is known for its unique academic programs, and is the alma mater of the great documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.

This tiny hill town 20 miles west of Northampton has a very active historical society. They were friendly and welcoming, and I got to share a community supper with them.

Thanks to an article I wrote about my project in the local newspaper, and some great publicity generated by the library, I was greeted with an overflow crowd. I was stunned at the beginning when someone in the audience said that I look like Lewis Hine. The next day, I got an email from a woman who had attended. She told me that she was so moved by my project, that she wanted to volunteer her assistance in transcribing my taped interviews with descendants. Thanks, Seunghee, for being my first staff member.

I talked to sixth grade students who are studying child labor. These wonderfully bright children are taught by Tom Weiner, a gifted and innovative educator. This was one of the liveliest and most rewarding events I have attended.

This well-known non-profit organization arranged a presentation at the beautiful Holyoke Heritage Museum, a very appropriate venue, since Holyoke was one of the great industrial cities in New England in the 1800s. It was the home of one of the first great canals in the country, and one of the centers of the paper industry.

Most of the audience members were middle school students who had recently read Counting On Grace, the book inspired by the Lewis Hine photo of Addie Card. My brother and his wife, who live in nearby Burlington, were in attendance.

Many of the audience members had worked in their younger days at the area’s silk mills, so they had plenty of comments. It was fun, and the location was only two miles from my house.

I made presentations to three double classes, in the town just up the road from Pownal. It was a real workout, since I had only one 20-minute break for lunch, and woke up that morning with a terrible case of laryngitis. But the students were terrific, and I got through it.

I was the speaker at the annual meeting. This is the town where Addie Card was born and raised. My search for her life story represented the first Hine photo I researched. That story is posted on this site, and was obviously a very popular part of my presentation.

This event was organized by the Berkshire Institute of Lifelong Learning, which is affiliated with Berkshire Community College. It was very well attended, and I enjoyed it very much.

I was invited by a professor in the history department to speak to one of his classes. The college is quite a place, having grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. One of the students had been a child laborer in the Latin American country where she grew up.