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The following was written by the editor in a 1909 edition of The Outlook, a newspaper. It appeared as the introduction to "Day Laborers Before Their Time," a story with pictures by Lewis Hine. One of those pictures was the one above of Dora Nevins.

"Hartford, the capital of the State of Connecticut, is one of the most prosperous and beautiful cities in New England - and New England is not uncommonly nor unreasonably supposed to be the most enlightened section of the United States. The figures of the last census gave the city a population of eighty thousand inhabitants, and its unusual wealth is indicated by the single fact that the total assets of the fire and life insurance companies which have their head offices in Hartford and are the creation of Hartford capital and skill amount to one hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars. Hartford is the seat of Trinity College and one of the chief theological seminaries of the Congregational Church; moreover, its public school system is an admirable one, and it spends annually on these schools a sum amounting to between three and four hundred thousand dollars. Thomas Hooker, the famous clergyman and statesman of colonial times, a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England, in 1608, was a citizen of Hartford, and is by some historians called the father of American democracy, which gives Hartford an excellent claim to the title of being the birthplace of that democracy."

"If, with all these historical, social, and material advantages, such conditions can prevail among the newsboys and newsgirls of Hartford as are portrayed in the accompanying illustrations from life, no argument needs to be stated to prove the need of such an organization as the National Child Labor Committee, in the process of some of whose investigations the photographs were taken upon the streets of Hartford. Under the auspices of the State Consumers' League and the National Child Labor Committee, a bill was introduced last winter to remedy some of these conditions, but it was rejected by the State Senate. Our able contemporary, the Survey, points out the significant fact that on the same day that this bill was rejected, the Connecticut Senate passed a bill providing that women and children may be employed in shops and department stores every night of the year until ten o'clock, and without any limit whatever as to hours of work in the week preceding Christmas. No doubt there are other cities where the conditions of newsboys and newsgirls are quite as bad as those prevailing in Hartford, but the retort of tu quoque will not serve to remove from Hartford the distinction of setting today a typical if not a flagrant example of American indifference to the welfare of children made day-laborers before their time."

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I fell in love with this photo immediately. It is unusual for Hine. The girl is not looking at the camera, and there is no sense that she is in any distress. The fact that she is looking to her right invites all sorts of possible explanations. Was someone calling out to her? Was she facing away from a cold March wind? Was she camera shy? Was she eyeing a potential customer heading her way? The photograph was one of about 40 Hine took of newsboys and newsgirls in Hartford, from about March 4 to March 8, 1909. The identity of the newspapers she was holding is a mystery. I blew up the photo and was able to read two of the headlines, but in an archival search of the Hartford Courant and Hartford Times, the two major area publications at the time, neither headline appeared, so one can only guess what newspaper she was selling.

I live only 45 minutes from Hartford, so I was excited about the prospect of doing some onsite research. Right away, I wanted to know where the picture was taken. I assumed that someone would be able to recognize the attractive building behind Dora, so I emailed the photo to the Connecticut Historical Society, in Hartford. In a few hours, they identified it as the Old State House, which still stands at 800 Main Street. Having lived in Connecticut from 1970 to 1999, I had seen it many times. I made plans to go there and attempt to take the picture from the same spot, 100 years later. But first, I had to find Dora's descendants.

In only a few minutes of searching on Ancestry.com, I found a Dora Basch in the Connecticut Death Index, which included the surname of her father, Nevins in this case. Her husband was listed as Frank. They appeared in the 1930 census, with four children, one of which was Harold I. Basch, not yet one year old. I found a Harold I. Basch in the Florida listings of the Internet White Pages, and called him up. I spoke to his wife, Wilma, who confirmed that Dora was her late mother-in-law. I emailed them the photo, and they were surprised and delighted. Several weeks later, I interviewed them. Meanwhile, I spent several days on the computer digging up more information, and then I headed to Hartford for some research and picture taking.

Most official records indicate that Dora was born in 1899, but her immigration manifest, often unreliable, indicates she was born in 1897. Dora's son and daughter-in-law have always been under the impression that Dora was born in January of 1899, so it seems reasonable to accept that fact. So her age at the time of the photo was likely 10, not 12, as Hine specified. Her father, Rubin Nevins (also known as Abrahim Navinsky), landed at Ellis Island on September 9, 1905. His wife, Anna, and four daughters, including Dora, the oldest (listed as Dweine Navinsky in the manifest), landed at Ellis Island on May 31, 1907. All had been living in Grodno, Russia, where there was a sizeable Jewish population. The Nevins family was Jewish. The family was to have one more child, another daughter, born in Hartford a year later.

Ruben was a carpenter, later a building contractor. The family initially lived at 107 North Street, near a railroad yard. The street has since been replaced entirely by the Hartford Graduate Center and the Dodge Music Center, according to the Connecticut Historical Society. In 1912, three years after Hine photographed Dora, her mother died of heart failure at the age of 34. At that time, they were living at 5 Pequot St, which is no longer a residence address. Dora married Frank Basch about 1919, and they lived for a while with his parents, before renting a house at 73 Plainfield St, and then buying a house at 203 Branford St, both addresses near the University of Hartford, in the Blue Hills section of the city. Dora's father died in 1932.