Employees of the Dwight Manufacturing Company in Chicopee, Mass, in November 1911. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, National Child Labor Committee Collection.
In 2014:
Another photo from Lewis Hine’s documentation of child labor issues in the early 1900s, this one shows a group of young workers at Dwight Manufacturing Company in Chicopee, Mass. Hine writes this in his caption:
Group of workers in Dwight Mfg. Co. Stanley Twarog (one of the smallest boys), 81 Park St. Works in spinning room. Tony Sccha [i.e., Soccha], (Shortest boy in front, overalls. Very young. 65 Exchange St. A bobbin Boy in Room 7; has been there a year. Location: Chicopee, Massachusetts.
Today, all of the boys are (presumably) long-dead, but I’m sure many of their ancestors still live in Chicopee and the surrounding towns, probably unaware of their grandfather or great-grandfather’s role in changing child labor laws in the United States. The buildings do remain, although the picket fence has been replaced by a far less picturesque chain link fence topped with barbed wire, and the railroad tracks in the foreground aren’t covered in the snow – they are long gone as well.
Hi..My name is Tracey Twarog. My grandfather was Stanley Twarog. He is shown in one of your pics. Child labor Chicopee,Ma. I would love to have a copy of the photo or any others you may have or any information. Thank You
Hi Tracey! Here is the link to the original photo on the Library of Congress website:
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/item/2018676848/
If you click on the TIFF(50.5mb) link below the thumbnail photo on their site, you can download the full-resolution photo. It’s a big file, but it’s useful if you wanted to blow it up and make a large print of it.
I wasn’t able to find much information on your grandfather when I initially researched for this post a number of years ago, but this photo was taken by a very famous photojournalist, Lewis Hine, who documented child labor conditions around the country in the early 1900s. You might want to try contacting Joe Manning through his website, https://morningsonmaplestreet.com/ – he specializes in researching the children in Lewis Hines’s photos and learning about their life stories, so he might be able to point you in the right direction.
Hope that helps!