We recently discovered these photos from the U.S. National Archives featuring real life news boys from 1910 in St. Louis. Photographer Lewis Wilkes Hine visited St. Louis as part of a tour for the National Child Labor Committee in early May 1910. He spent several days with St. Louis’ “newsies” and captured them on their corners and at their branch offices. Although they put on airs and played tough, they were actually just little boys, many of them orphans, working hard for penny tips selling the city’s newspapers.
- News boys standing in front Johnston’s Branch and adjoining Saloon. St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Regular seller, Francis Lance, is 5 years old and 41 inches high. He is busy working in St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Tommy Hawkins, another 5-year-old who sells papers in St. Louis. He is 41 inches tall. May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Bundle boys in St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- A branch office in a coal shed. St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Burn’s basement branch in a dark dirty cellar. St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- 11:00 A.M., May 1910: Newsies at Skeeter’s Branch in St. Louis. They were all smoking.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- This is where the money goes to. Each branch office usually has a candy counter. St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Another shot of all of the boys smoking at 11:00 A.M. at Skeeter’s Branch in St. Louis. May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Johnnie Burns and his Basement Branch. The photo also features his boy, whom he says is ungovernable. Burns says the 4-year-old twins will also be selling soon, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- A small newsie downtown on a Saturday afternoon in St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Little 5-year-old Francis Lance jumps on and off moving cars at risk of life. St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Eight-year-old Joe Smith, St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
- Truants selling the Saturday Evening Post at 10:30 A.M. in St. Louis, May 1910.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
These photos were part of as many as 500 the photographer took documenting child labor in the U.S. at that time. Although the National Child Labor Committee was formed in 1904, it wasn’t until 1938 that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which finally placed limits on many forms of child labor.
Flickr/ The U.S. National Archives
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