Fish Gutting Knife, ca. 1900. Collection of the Maine State Museum, 83.90.1.9.
Fish Gutting Knife, ca. 1900. Collection of the Maine State Museum, 83.90.1.9.
Children, many under 14 years old, worked with large knives such as this. These young “cutters” chopped off the head and tail and then pulled the organs out of the slippery fish.
The Maine Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics report for 1907 said, “[t]his is the most repulsive part of the process to witness and is where many women, small boys and girls are employed…The cutters grasp the cold, slippery fish, their hands and clothing are covered with blood, fish scales and other offal, and they stand amid fish debris.”