Magazine
SLIDE SHOW: Lewis Hine’s Mill Photos
Photographer Lewis Hine is best known for his documentary work capturing images of child labor around the country for the National Child Labor Committee from 1908-1924. The following photographs represent some of the images he created while traveling around New England and include his field notes. Faces discovered in cranberry bogs, mills, sardine factories and […]
By Lewis W. Hine/Library of Congress|Feb 10 2011|
Addie Card, 12 year old spinner in North Pownall Cotton Mill. She admitted that she was 12 years old; that she started during school vacation and now would stay. Photographed in North Pownal, Vermont, February 1910.
Photo Credit: Lewis W. Hine
My great x2 Grandfather James Atkinson who hailed from Preston/Garstang, No.Lancashire, England was a machinist who worked in the mills in the North Lancashire area of England. Was hired by Mr. Nelson D. White to come to the US and work in his new mill he had just built. James came to Winchendon to get settled in before his wife Bridget (Walsh) Atkinson (Bridget came from Grallagh, and area, just two miles outside of Nenagh, Tipperary North, Ireland) came over with their first four children born in England. My great grandfather Joseph W. Atkinson was the first of their children born in the US in 1870 in Winchendon, MA. Also my great grandfathers wife to be someday, Dina Berard worked as a babysitter for Nelson D.White’s children for a period of time, and her father (also my great x2 grandfather Norbert Berard) worked as a gardener around Nelson D. White’s mansion Marchmont. Families were intertwined in different ways at that time.
The mill that James Atkinson came from England to work at was the Glen Allen Mill constructed right on the river in Winchendon, Massachusetts. From what I have been told, I believe some of his children may have also worked in this mill. I cannot confirm this, I would also like to know this fact also. I wonder today if Eric White still has any of the old records of the people who actually worked in these two old mills in Winchendon, MA?