Richard Mills … showing a severely cut finger, photograph by Lewis Hine, Eastport, Maine, August 1911. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Richard Mills … showing a severely cut finger, photograph by Lewis Hine, Eastport, Maine, August 1911. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Eight-year-old Richard cut his finger processing sardines in Eastport. He told the photographer that he was “very soon back to work, as it was the season.” He was the youngest of 11 children, but was one of only six still living. According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Richard’s 18 year-old brother, John, worked in the cannery, but could not read or write, suggesting that Richard was not literate either.