October 23, 2011
Today's America is far removed from the old days of child labor, but these vintage photos of child oyster shuckers circa 1910 shed light on this chilling page of our country's history. The photos show young ragamuffins hard at work or standing before mountains of oyster shells.
The oyster-shucking photos were captured by Lewis Wickes Hine and are now archived at the Library of Congress. While some photos are quite sad, some show glimmers of childlike playfulness despite the kids' hardscrabble lives, such as the photo below:
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