Jef Nickerson
November 1912. Central Falls, Rhode Island. View of privies, garbage dumps, etc., in back yards near Bed-bug Alley and High Street. Photo and caption by Lewis Wickes Hine for the Child Welfare Exhibit of 1912-13. via: Shorpy.com
A reader sent me some links from a site I hadn’t heard of, Shorpy.com. Shorpy.com describes itself as, “History in HD is a vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.”
All of the photos on the site are interesting, and there are some from Rhode Island. Though these are not your typical photos of a hazy glorified yesteryear. In fact, most of these photos highlight child labor in the mills of Rhode Island around the turn of the last century. Something that we don’t look back on very often.
- Providence, November 1912
- Providence, November 23, 1912
- 70 Borden Street, Providence, November 1912
- Republican Street, Providence, November 23, 1912
- Coventry, April 16, 1909
- Spruce Street, Providence, November 1912
- Whitman Street dump, Pawtucket, November 1912
- Naval Training Station, Newport, c. 1913
- Fiskeville, April 1909
- Warren, June 10, 1909
- Quidwick Co. Mill, April 1909
- Whitman Street dump, Pawtucket, November 1912
- Newport, 1902
- Naval Training Station, Newport, 1913
- Newport, 1902
- Newport, 1901
- Phenix, April 1909
Great snapshots of street life in Providence – urchins and all. Life may not have been especially pleasant back then, but it was certainly a lot more exciting.