Mamie Labarge, Winchendon, Massachusetts, September 1911. Photo by Lewis Hine.

Mamie La Barge at her machine. Under legal age. Location: Winchendon, Massachusetts, September 1911, Lewis Hine.

In September of 1911, Lewis Hine took at least 40 child labor photographs in Winchendon, Massachusetts, a town in northern Worcester County. Ninety-seven years later, in September of 2008, I made a presentation about my project at the Springfield (Mass) Museums. After the event, a woman in the audience showed me copies of a few of these photos, all of them picturing a girl identified by Hine as Mamie La Barge. The woman said that she believed that Mamie was her great aunt, and asked me to check into it.

Despite browsing through the Library of Congress photos many times, I didn't remember seeing any in Winchendon, nor did I know where the town was located. I agreed to help and started right away when I got home. Quickly, I found the photos on the library’s website, and then I discovered that Winchendon is only about 60 miles from my home. Excited about the prospect of doing research "on site" rather than on the Web, I printed all the photos and captions and put them in a binder. Several days later, I drove to Winchendon and poured through birth, marriage and death records at the town hall, town directories at the library, and took an eerie walk around one of the mills, now closed, windowless and empty.

Click on the link to see a thumbnail gallery of all 40 photos. From time to time, I will be adding pictures of the families, with captions, and information I have uncovered about them. Follow the links below.

Winchendon Gallery

Paquette Family

Marion Deschere

Irenee La Prise

Frank and Edgar Charbonneau

Alcide Gauthier

Eva Caouette