Child Labor for a Good Night’s Sleep
Hine captured a variety of factory jobs, from milling to flood production. He found these boys linking bedsprings, an innovation of mattress comfort patented in 1969. They were working in the depths of a Boston factory in 1917. Despite his usually meticulous notes, Hine’s captions lack the number of detailed notes his other entries have.
He estimates these boys to be about fourteen or fifteen and does not record the name of the factory. They linked wire bedsprings and pulled them onto a bed frame. They worked with sharp wire springs with delicate tools and no hand protection. The other boys in the image appear to be about the same age, indicating the company regularly employed Boston children for this job.
