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 Fund, 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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Italian Family Looking for Lost Baggage, Ellis Island
Lewis W. Hine
1905, printed 1939
Gelatin silver print
2002.144
Slovak Mother, Ellis Island
Lewis W. Hine
c. 1905
Gelatin silver print
2000.805
Newsies, Newark, New Jersey
Lewis W. Hine
December 1909
Gelatin silver print
2000.804
San Antonio Messenger Boys for Red Light District, San Antonio, Texas.
Lewis W. Hine
October 1913
Gelatin silver print
76.275
Inspecting Lens Blanks
Lewis W. Hine
c. 1925
Gelatin silver print
86.378
Precision Machine Worker
Lewis W. Hine
1923
Gelatin silver print
86.377
Driver in West Virginia Coal Mine. Brown, West Virginia.
Lewis W. Hine
September 1908
Gelatin silver print
97.697
Derrick-Man
Lewis W. Hine
1930
Gelatin silver print
2001.167
Italian Mother and Child, Ellis Island.
Lewis W. Hine
1905, printed 1940s
Gelatin silver print
2012.516.1
Russian Steel Workers, Homestead, Pennsylvania.
Lewis W. Hine
1908, printed 1940s
Gelatin silver print
2012.516.2
Six year old newsboy. Raymond Miller. San Antonio, Texas.
Lewis W. Hine
October 1913
Gelatin silver print
84.324.1