
Rare photographs that changed lives - DanBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-43031764
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neves
Go all the way down. The last photo is one of the most impressive. Children
working with "guards" ready to beat them with a truncheon.

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hackeraccount
Is that really what's going on in that picture?

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goodcanadian
Well, on the one hand, I doubt they were using the threat of violence to get
them to work. On the other hand, they were probably watching out for theft,
and I have little doubt that they would have administered a beating if they
caught someone pocketing coal.

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lakkal
As a little girl during the Great Depression, my grandmother and her friends
used to throw rocks at the engineers on trains, to provoke them into throwing
pieces of coal back at them. They'd then take the coal home for warmth.

~~~
zodPod
That seems like a ton of effort. I know coal burns well but is it really worth
that kind of effort in that quantity? (This isn't scrutinizing I'm just
curious if this was a practice that was fruitful or if it was just kids
thinking they were helping or something?)

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lakkal
Sadly, I don't know (or remember) any more of the story than that, and she's
not around anymore to ask... It doesn't seem likely that they would have
gotten huge amounts of coal by doing it.

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turc1656
That first photo reminds me of the Gotham Public Works logo from the Batman
universe:
[https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L_2Oqwk1Gqs/TcauyYazjaI/AAAAAAAAA...](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L_2Oqwk1Gqs/TcauyYazjaI/AAAAAAAAAKo/zvTFtVSrLlI/s400/gotham%2Bpublic%2Bworks%2Bpinball%2Btopper.jpg)

I wonder if it was, perhaps, inspired by this famous photo?

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jaclaz
Or by this monument?

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KZvDYmzdiLQ/VetenUM0abI/AAAAAAABg0...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KZvDYmzdiLQ/VetenUM0abI/AAAAAAABg0g/rBps6UbAyKo/s1600/IMG_7269.JPG)

Or by this Superman picture?

[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OhVeTMXYR9E/ThNZis3eEjI/AAAAAAAAAB...](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OhVeTMXYR9E/ThNZis3eEjI/AAAAAAAAABc/4PTSdagK4Rk/s1600/superman-
in-the-heart-of-the-sun.jpg)

More seriously it is a kind of iconography that was present in many countries
in the 1900-1950 period (and even later in URSS and other communist countries)
often in the form of propaganda posters, here is a Chinese one:

[http://magazine.utoronto.ca/leading-edge/labour-days-
chinese...](http://magazine.utoronto.ca/leading-edge/labour-days-chinese-
propaganda-posters-elizabeth-parke-scott-anderson/)

[http://magazine.utoronto.ca/wp-content/gallery/chinese-
propa...](http://magazine.utoronto.ca/wp-content/gallery/chinese-propaganda-
posters/f6199.jpg)

Here you can see how another of Hine's photos (the one with the guy on the
crane hook) has been used iconographically (maybe):

[https://wolfsonianfiulibrary.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/overt-...](https://wolfsonianfiulibrary.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/overt-
covert-miami-dade-college-students-use-wolfsonian-art-objects-to-decode-the-
iconography-of-labor/)

Hugo Gellert and William Gropper are good examples of (US) artists that did
similar drawing/paintings:

[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Gropper_-
_Co...](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Gropper_-
_Construction_of_a_Dam_1939.jpg)

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kps
For those interested, the Library of Congress has a substantial number of
Lewis Hine photos available online.

[https://www.loc.gov/photos/?fa=contributor:hine,+lewis+wicke...](https://www.loc.gov/photos/?fa=contributor:hine,+lewis+wickes%7Caccess-
restricted:false)

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mfoy_
Oof. The "good ol' days".

~~~
JadeNB
Could you elaborate? Presumably, that's a sarcastic "the good ol' days before
child labour laws".

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mfoy_
The whole trope of romanticizing the past... you know... Make America Great...
Again? As if it isn't, but it... was?

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_tulpa
On an unrelated note: why does nobody ever scale photos for viewport height? I
can never see whole portrait-oriented photos without zooming out.

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swang
in the last photo w/ the coal breakers... does that dude have a sword???

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quakeguy
Looks like a stick to me, still gruesome. Btw. i found some more pictures from
those "Breaker Boys" at work, check this out.

[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/25/40/25/254025955197cd827816dd9ac...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/25/40/25/254025955197cd827816dd9acdedde60.jpg)

[https://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/Meetings/Scranton/B...](https://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/Meetings/Scranton/Breaker%20Boys%202%20USBM.jpg)

Identical Photos it seems, but one is retouched to remove the beating stick
from the guards hands.

Very telling.

