Children in Danger: Estelle Poiriere’s Career-Stalling Injury
Injury was a constant threat to these young factory and farm workers. Estelle Poiriere was a fifteen-year-old doffer at the Granite No. 1 cotton mill in Fall River, Massachusetts. Doffers were part of the milling industry. As thread spun onto a bobbin, doffers came around replacing bobbins full of thread with empty ones, ready to have more thread spun onto them.
Although boys typically worked as doffers and girls as spinners, Hine identified Estelle as a doffer. Estelle caught her hand in a machine at work in December of 1915, lacerating her index and middle fingers on her right hand. Over time, her hand grew stiff. The injury grew worse, to the point where she needed surgery on the hand. She was still not able to work by June of 1916. For some families, this was the greatest danger, that their children could no longer earn an income.
