Historian plays detective with photographs

Author: Tamara Hilmes

According to Joe Manning, his credentials for researching the children in Lewis Hine's photographs are merely that he very nearly resembles the turn-of-the-century photographer himself. In spite of his modest claim, however, over the past two years Manning has done more than just play doppelganger to the well-known documenter of child labor - he has managed to track down and interview the descendents of over 100 of the 5,000 children pictured in Hine's photographs that now reside in the Library of Congress.

"Personally," said Manning while giving a lecture at the Henry Sheldon Museum on Sunday, March 9, "I always thought I looked more like Paul Newman."

Manning, an author and historian from Massachusetts, has devoted his life to researching the backgrounds and lives of the children pictured in Hine's photos ever since he was asked for help by Elizabeth Winthrop, the author of "Counting on Grace." Winthrop's novel is based on the life of Addie Card, one of the children that Hine photographed working in a textile mill. When she ran into difficulty trying to find out more about Card, Winthrop enlisted Manning's help.

"She knew a few scraps," said Manning, "and she asked me if I would like to go out and find more. I wanted to bolt out the door right then and there. Everyone wants to be a detective."

After being approached by Winthrop, Manning immediately began his hunt for information about little Addie Card.

"Nine days into my investigation," said Manning, "I found a potential live grandchild [of Card], who would have been about 60-years-old. 'Just like that,' I thought, 'I'll find out what happened to her.' But the granddaughter knew nothing at all."

During his investigations, Manning often has to get creative in order to delve into the histories of each of the children, much like Hine had to be sly in order to photograph the children in the mills and factories. According to Manning, Hine would often trick the mills owners by posing as an industrial photographer of machines and sometimes as a Bible salesman. While Manning never had to resort to dressing in disguise, he has encountered a great deal of frustrations and false leads.

"It is a lot of guesswork," said Manning. "Sometimes I don't know, I just don't know. For instance, if you have to look up everyone named Young, you might end up with the wrong person and then you're sunk. The key ingredient is to find when they died, because a lot of people aren't in the government databases, since Social Security numbers weren't created until after the war."

Despite the failed interview with the granddaughter, Manning still managed to piece together Card's story through the perusal of public records and an interview with a great-granddaughter who had lived with Card for 15 years.

"Within two months," said Manning, "I managed to bridge the whole gap of her life. Afterward, I thought, 'What am I going to do with the rest of my life?'"

According to Manning, for those two months he had allowed himself to become completely engrossed in his research.

"I drove around with her picture on my passenger's seat and the day before I found the great-granddaughter, I even talked to it, saying, 'Addie, tell me where you are.'"

After Manning's success with Card, he decided to try and tackle more of the mystery children. Manning proceeded to hunt down several more of the children, including those that he refers to as Minnie and Mattie, Pearly, Willy Tear, Eli and Morris Marks, Shorpy and many more.

Through his extensive research, Manning has come to consider the children his acquaintances, if not friends.

"I like these two brothers," said Manning, pointing to Hine's photo of Eli and Morris Marks, two newsboys from Washington, D.C. Manning went on to tell the story of the brothers, both of whom ended up becoming successful real estate owners. Eli's son, Tobin, Manning discovered, ended up attending M.I.T. and was nominated for a Nobel Prize in chemistry. "Isn't that nice to a see a kid from that type of situation and then to see a nice family picture later?" Manning asked his audience upon showing a picture of the two grown brothers and their families.

With each photo and with each child that he researches, Manning seems to not only uncover their histories, but also their personalities. One boy, pictured hulling strawberries on a farm in Delaware, particularly interested Manning.

"I like George here 'cause he's eating a strawberry, " said Manning of the young worker. "I saw a picture of him when he was 60, and he had the same sly look on his face."

Manning is not the only one to discover something new through his project. Oftentimes, Manning pointed out, the families of the children in the photos are equally surprised to discover more about their relatives. When Manning began researching children whom Hine failed to name, he asked newspapers to run the photographs in the hopes that someone would recognize them and provide him with answers. Oftentimes, relatives of the subject would call Manning with questions of their own.

When Manning had a paper run the image of the girl now known as Sadie, he said "the family was completely overwhelmed" and had called him "within a couple of hours." Manning witnessed the same level of surprise when he contacted the family of Warren Frakes only to discover that they knew neither about the photographs that Hine took of him, nor that he had been a professional boxer in later life.

Although many families are thrilled to learn more about their ancestors, some are not as willing to share information with Manning. He encountered this less-than-enthusiastic attitude while investigating the life of "Shorpy" Smith, a coal miner.

"I found his son in Alabama and called him up," said Manning. "I explained to him what I had found, and he said that he didn't know his father at all and told me, 'and I don't want to talk about this any longer.'"

Despite the many challenges associated with his research, Manning has not lost his enthusiasm for the project.

"If a photo is a mystery," Manning continued, "I still want to know. I keep telling myself, 'I'm gonna find something this time.' It just haunts me."

All of the information that Manning has uncovered about the children pictured in Hine's photographs can be viewed on his Web site - although, according to Manning, there is still a lot more work that has yet to be done.

"I'm pleading for grants," said Manning, "but I'm not an entity, I'm a person, so it's kinda hard. I need transcribers - that is the most tedious part. I have a couple of college kids who are volunteering right now, but I can always use more help. I can't do all 5,000 on my own."

"When I first began," continued Manning, "and found the nephew of Minnie and Mattie, I was really excited and I showed my wife. She said, 'Wow, I guess I'm never gonna see you again.' It's been an obsession of mine for two years now."