Tenement Workshops
In this dingy flat at 143 Thompson Street, the Ceru family does piecework making artificial leaves. They will sell these leaves back to a manufacturer for a purpose lost to time. Perhaps the leaves were put in a hatband, or a decorative floral spray for someone’s living room. In tenement workshops, labor is a family affair; everyone is involved except the babies and small toddlers, and in the case of the Ceru family, their dog and cat.
Even the five-year-old Ceru girl helps. The ten-year-old girl, suffering nearsightedness, works until 9pm. She has glasses, but she doesn’t wear them at home. She keeps them on a nearby shelf. When asked about this odd arrangement, she explained to photographer Henry Wickes Hine, in his documentation of child labor, that she keeps them safe there “because Mother says I look funny with them. Now I got to go out and shop.”
