Provenance

(Lunn Gallery, Washington, DC); Maurizia Grossman, Washington, DC, 1975; gift to NGA, 2025.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

on verso, top right stamped in purple ink: -12-; by unknown hand, center left in graphite perpendicular: 2685 / Picking nuts in a / dirty N.Y. basement; center left stamped in black ink perpendicular: Set No; center stamped in blue ink perpendicular: N; center right stamped in purple ink perpendicular: IN ORDERING USE THIS NUMBER / [stamped in black ink: N 2685] / HINE PHOTO COMPANY / 27 GRANT AVE. LINCOLN PARK / YONKERS, N. Y.; on frame verso, printed in black ink on attached paper: No. 2685 / LEWIS W. HINE / New York City, Dec. 1911 / "Mrs. Lucy Libertine and family: Johnnie, 4 years / old, Mary 6 years, Millie 9 years, picking nuts in the / basement tenement 143 Hudson St. Mary was standing / on the open mouth of the bag holding the cracked / nuts (to be picked), with her dirt street shoes on, and using a huge dirty jack-knife. On the right is / the cobbler's bench used by shoemaker in this room. / They live in dark inner bedrooms, and filth abounds / in all the rooms and in the dark, damp entry."