When They Were Young: A Photographic Retrospective of Childhood

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If we would only let them be so, children are often ready to be our teachers. When we become thoughtful about things, we want to know about life's purpose. Waiting to show us what it means to keep going, what we need to do to stay on top of things, are our sons and daughters, or the kids next door or across the street or around the block. They are going from one step to another, trying to meet this business of living as best they can.

Robert Coles

Suzanne Szasz The Newborn, 1954 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-130889 (1)	Edward J. Steichen Mother and child--sunlight, 1906 Copyprint of photogravure Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-96561 (2)	Lewis Wickes Hine A "little mother" and her charges, Tarente, Italy, 1918 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-90521 (3)
Marion Post Wolcott Mother and child at Okeechobee migratory labor camp, Belle Glade, Florida, 1940 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-054160 (7)	Unidentified photographer Unidentified girl holding daguerreotype case Sixth-plate daguerreotype, 1847 Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ6-1984 (8)	Frances Benjamin Johnston Asian (?) baby holding spoon or ladle, ca. 1892 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-103125 (9)
Theodor Horydczak Six children at swimming hole, ca. 1920-1950 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-H822-T01-1689-002 (13)	Theodor Jung Kids, Jackson, Ohio, 1936 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF33-004120-M1 (5)	John Vachon Ozark children getting mail from RFD box, Missouri, 1940 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF33-001862-M2 (6)
Unidentified photographer Tad Lincoln, son of President Abraham Lincoln, in a Union uniform, early 1860s Copyprint Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-13677 (10)	Carl Werntz Apache girl with basket, ca. 1902 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-104560 (11)	Marion Post Wolcott On Saturday afternoons and Sundays boys from nearby farms go swimming, Lake Providence, Louisiana, 1940 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-054005-D (12)
F. Holland Day Girl in dress with white collar, 1905 Copyprint of gum bichromate print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-83911 (4)	Jack Delano Farm boy along the road, Corozal, Puerto Rico, 1941 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF33-021312-M5 (14)	Edwin Rosskam Boy dressed up for the Easter parade, Chicago, Illinois, 1941 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF33-5146-M1 (15)
John Vachon and Mary Ellen Mark Boy on school bus, from Look Magazine article "Operation Exodus," Boston, Massachusetts, 1968 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LOOK Job 68-3649 (16)	Carl Mydans Boys playing cards near Union Station, Washington, D.C., 1935 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-115259 (17)	Marcus J. Clark Children at play in narrow street, Paris, France, 1939 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-95978 (18)

They're on the lookout for something to do, someplace to be, something that will give the day some action. If you're doing something then by golly, you're alive! One achievement after another! Momentum matters--why not?

Robert Coles

Aaron Siskind Boys playing with toy swords, Harlem, New York, ca. 1930-1940 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-102399 (19)	Unidentified photographer Ballet school for baby ballerinas, 1955 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-130890 (42)	Russell Lee July 4^th parade, n.d. Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF-3301-13082-M4 (21)
Russell Lee Three children at a table, 1930s Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF33-11318-M2 (22)	Lewis Wickes Hine Turkish boy in Salonika, Greece, smiling and carrying food he obtained from the Red Cross, 1918 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-90527 (23)	Lewis Wickes Hine Boy working in factory, Alexandria, Virginia, 1911 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division (24)
Walter Scott Shinn Theodore Roosevelt with Master Richard Derby and holding Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., ca. 1916 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-120232 (25)	Toni Frissell Lady Churchill kissing granddaughter Emma, ca. 1950-1960 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-F9-02-5306-009-04 (26)	Morris Gallery of the Cumberland Portrait of a boy soldier, Nashville, Tennessee, ca. 1860-1865 Copyprint of carte de visite Prints and Photographs Division LC-B8184-10573 (27)
Russell Lee Watching the parade, Vale, Oregon, 1941 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF33-13103-M5 (28)	Alan Lomax Young boy crying, ca.1934-1950 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ6-631 (29)	Toni Frissell Boy with shadow, ca. 1950-1960 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division (30)
Toni Frissell Hong Kong-- Girl--Family---Boat, 1959 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-F9-04-5904-006-01a (31)	Alan Lomax African American child singer for singing games, Eatonville, Florida, 1935 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LOT 7414-c, no. N106a (32)	Unidentified photographer Nursemaid with her charge Sixth-plate ambrotype, hand-tinted, ca. 1855 Prints and Photographs Division (33) LC-USZC4-5251

It is not easy to turn away from children, near and far, no matter the other obligations that press upon us. We want a future for this world, and when we look at boys and girls going about their ways and days, we are reminded of all that our sons and daughters need to do in the course of their short but important (sometimes momentous) lives spent here among us adults--and so our eyes meet theirs in pictures that become beacons for our moral sensibility, not to mention, our hearts.

Robert Coles

Lewis Wickes Hine African American boy holding a piece of fruit received through the Red Cross drought relief work, Mississippi, ca. 1930 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-117291 (34)	Jack Delano Son of a farmer, Caguas, Puerto Rico, 1941 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-048775-D (35)	Theodor Horydczak Copy photograph of a young girl, ca. 1920-1950 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-H824-T-1524 (36)
Edward S. Curtis The daughter of Bad Horses (Cheyenne), ca. 1905 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-112272 (37)	Edward S. Curtis Noatak child, three-quarter length portrait, ca. 1929 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-107281 (38)	Edward S. Curtis Tlakluit child, ca. 1910 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-105382 (39)
Unidentified photographer Eskimo child leaning on block of wood, 1905 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LOT 11453-3, no. 80 (40)	Alan Lomax Mexican girls, San Antonio, Texas, 1934 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-71615 (41)	Lewis Wickes Hine Drought victim from Kentucky, in school with bottle of milk he received in a Red Cross lunch program, ca. 1930 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-101923 (20)
Unidentified photographer Youthful members of the "Balillas" (Junior Fascisti), Rome, Italy, n. d. Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division (43)	Russell Lee Two boys leaning on fence watching parade, Donaldsonville, Louisiana, 1938 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF33-011787-M2 (44)	Florence Ward Two African American girls playing with yarn and knitting needle at Harlem playground, ca. 1950-1970 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-122105 (45)
National Photo Company Collection Two children seated on step, ca. 1909-1932 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-106966 (46)	Jack Delano Children in slum, Utuado Puerto Rico, 1942 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-048097-E (47)	Dorothea Lange Pea picker's child, Nipomo, California, 1935 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-118706 (51)
Grey Villet Soothing her kitten, a girl of Hickman Mills, Missouri, sits in the ruins of her home destroyed by a tornado, 1957 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-114377 (49)	Gordon Parks Children, Frederick Douglass Housing Project, Anacostia, Washington, D.C., 1942 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-013369-C (50)	Jack Delano Daughter of a farm laborer, Caguas, Puerto Rico (vicinity), 1941 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-048743-D (48)

All those children these pictures shown parading, seeing, posing, even sometimes peering, all those children the world over trying their hardest to get through the riddles of life, its variousness, its spells of good or bad. One hopes and prays for every one of them, for what their lives ended up being. . . .

Robert Coles

Gordon Parks Boy at the playground, Frederick Douglass Housing Project, Anacostia, Washington, D.C., 1942 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-013372-C (52)	Emily and Lillian Selby Young girl, ca. 1894-1920 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-119389 (53)	W.E.B. Du Bois Collection African American girl with braided hair, 1899 or 1900 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-121107 (54)
Clarence H. White The ring toss, 1899 Copyprint of platinum print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-41661 (55)	Keystone View Company Singhalese girls, Ceylon, ca. 1905 Copyprint of stereograph Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-103631 (56)	W.E.B. Du Bois Collection Three African American boys, ca. 1900 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-69906 (57)
A. Aubrey Bodine Five Amish children posed, standing, outdoors, ca. 1953 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-99492 (58)	American Red Cross Collection Italian child looking at a copy of the Houston Post newspaper which was wrapped around American supplies sent from Houston, Texas, through the Junior Red Cross to the starving Italian children in Udine, Italy, ca. 1921 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-90817 (60)	Jack Delano Children at the Peter's Rest Elementary School, Christiansted, Saint Croix Island, Virgin Islands (vicinity), 1941 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-047082-D (59)
Dorothea Lange Child of a former tenant farmer, Ellis County, Texas, 1937 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USF34-017102-C (61)	Unidentified photographer Unidentified boy seated in chair with child standing to left Sixth-plate daguerreotype, ca. 1850-1860 Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ6-1950 (62)	Russell Lee Getting ready for the parade at the fiesta of the Holy Ghost, Santa Clara, California, 1942 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USW3-004576-D (63)
B. W. Kilburn Jewish children in a street of Warsaw, Poland, ca. 1897 Copyprint of stereograph Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-98872 (64)	Black Star Curiosity overrode fear in the faces of these English children taking shelter in a ditch during a German air raid, 1940 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-93161(65)	Toni Frissell Girl raking leaves, ca. 1950-1960 Copyprint of gelatin silver print Prints and Photographs Division LC-USZ62-131238 (66)

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September 26, 2002