Amoskeag Manufacturing Company - Lewis Hine Child Labor Photos in May, 1909

Lewis Hine Child Labor Photos in May, 1909

• Small boys working in Amoskeag Mfg Co., noon May 25 1909

• Little spinner Amoskeag Mfg Co. - about 48 inches in height

• Child workers coming out of Amoskeag Mfg Co., 6PM May 24 1909

• Boys at Amoskeag Millyard 1909

• Spinning room workers at Amoskeag Millyard, May 1909

• Some of the girls who work in Amoskeag Mills. Manchester, N.H.

When tower bells rang at the end of the day's one shift, thousands of employees changed from work clothes and swarmed out the iron gates.

Locomotives and fire engines were built by the Amoskeag Locomotive Works. During the Civil War, Southern cotton became scarce, so the company's foundry made over 27,000 muskets and 6,892 Lindner carbines. It would also make sewing machines and, of course, textile machinery. Following the rebellion, the country's rapid industrialization resumed, with Manchester becoming a textile center greater than its namesake. Company engineers built more factories, lining both sides of the Merrimack. Mill No. 11 was the world's largest cotton mill, 900 feet (270 m) long, 103 feet (31 m) wide, and containing 4000 looms. Gingham, flannel, and ticking were company specialties, although numerous other fabrics in cotton and wool were produced. The noise from thousands of looms running simultaneously in the weave rooms was deafening, so workers had to communicate by shouting in each other's ears or lip reading. Amoskeag peaked by World War I, supplying the federal government with materiel. It employed up to 17,000 workers in 74 textile departments, with 30 mills weaving 50 miles (80 km) of cloth per hour. Defense patronage brought workers an increase in pay combined with a reduction in hours, from 54 to 48 per week.