"Let Children Be Children" Exhibit

The poignant collection of photographs sharply highlighting the trials confronting America's poorest and youngest population during the turn of the 20th century will be displayed at the Stedman Gallery at Rutgers-Camden during Monday, March 13 through Saturday, May 6.

A traveling exhibition organized by the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY, "Let Children Be Children" showcases the work of Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940).

Beginning his artistic career in 1905 by photographing immigrants at Ellis Island, Hine, a trained sociologist, was hired by the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) to document the conditions of the child worker. Hine worked for a decade capturing the plight of the child laborers in canneries, coalmines, cotton mills, farms, and sweatshops. The 55 black-and-white images in this collection - modern gelatin silver prints made from copy negatives - reveal how Hine and the NCLC worked to win public sentiment to outlaw child labor; legislation against child labor was signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938.

The exhibit is cosponsored by the Rutgers-Camden Center for Children and Childhood Studies.

An exhibit reception will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 30, featuring Dr. Philip Kilbride, a professor of anthropology at Bryn Mawr College, who will discuss the role of children and labor in East Africa.

The Stedman Gallery is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is free. The Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts is located on Rutgers University's Camden campus on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. For more information, contact (856) 225-6350 or arts@camden.rutgers.edu. Visit RCCA online at http://rcca.camden.rutgers.edu.

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Author: Press Release