Curator’s Talk: Child Labor, Oklahoma History Center

A Curator’s Talk for the Child Labor in Oklahoma: Photographs by Lewis Hine, 1916–1917 exhibit is planned for Thursday, November 3, from 6 to 7:30 pm at the Oklahoma History Center. Participants will hear from the curators and learn more about Lewis Hine, the art of documentary photography, and a brief history of child labor in Oklahoma and the United States. Visitors will have an opportunity to see the exhibit for free, experience hands-on history with old cameras and glass plates, and see parts of a film made about Hine in 1984. Finally, guests will learn a little more about what happened to several of the children who Hine photographed. This event is free and open to the public.

Lewis Hine was able to capture the soul of the child laborer in North America in the early 1900s. Although his photographs moved a nation to create child labor laws, Hine died in poverty and unrecognized in 1940. He never knew that decades later his life’s work would become synonymous with social reform documentary photography. Lewis Hine once said, “If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn”t need to lug a camera.”

Sponsored by Oklahoma Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Child Labor in Oklahoma: Photographs by Lewis Hine, 1916–1917 opened on October 1, 2016, almost one hundred years after Lewis Hine lugged his camera into the state of Oklahoma. Curated by Theresa Bragg, Jim Meeks, and Lori Oden, this exhibit highlights a collection of twenty-five powerful photographs taken by Hine while he passed through the state, visiting a variety of areas around Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The photographs will be on display in the Chesapeake Events Center, along with cameras and artifacts from the same time period. Also featured are some photographs from the Oklahoma Historical Society collection. An exhibit catalog is available for free while supplies last, courtesy of Oklahoma Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Chesapeake Events Center is utilized for meetings and events. Visitors should call in advance to make sure the exhibit is open to the public.

After the exhibit closes in March 2017, it will become a traveling exhibit. It will be available for museums, libraries, schools, and community centers at a very affordable rate.