Lewis W. Hine
Powerhouse Mechanic

ArtistAmerican, 1874–1940
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Powerhouse Mechanic
Date1920
PlaceUnited States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 13 7/16 × 9 7/16 in. (34.1 × 24 cm)
Sheet: 13 3/4 × 9 3/4 in. (34.9 × 24.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2002.1301
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

In the 1900s and 1910s, Lewis Hine photo­graphed children working in
mills, factories, and on the street, creating documentary images that helped
stir the conscience of Americans to establish child labor laws. Powerhouse
Mechanic
marked a new direction: “interpretive photography,” as the
photogra­pher’s stamp on the back of this print declares. Here, Hine posed a
ruggedly masculine worker as if tightening a steam pump bolt, orchestrating an
image that would become emblematic of industrial labor. “We call this the
Machine Age,” Hine wrote, “but the more machines we use, the more do we need
real men to make and direct them.”




ProvenanceWalther and Naomi Rosenblum, New York; [Galerie Berinson, Berlin]; purchased by Manfred Heiting, May 22, 1983; purchased by MFAH, 2002.
Exhibition HistoryNancy Barrett: "Parallels & Contrasts", New Orleans Museum of Art, 1988.

"American Vision: Photographers from the East, Selections from the Manfred Heiting Collection purchased by the Brown Foundation for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston from August 23-December 29, 2003.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Stamped in black, verso, center: LEWIS W. HINE / INTERPRETIVE PHOTOGRAPHY / HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON. NEW YORK
Stamped, verso, lower right: Hine

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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c. 1925
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1923
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