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January 28, 1909. "Girls working in Tampa, Florida, cigar box factory. I saw 10 small boys and girls. Has had reputation for employment of youngsters but work is slack now." Glass negative by Lewis Wickes Hine. View full size.
A few years ago, during the real estate boom, they turned an old building in Tampa into condos. That building was an old cigar box factory so they named it Box Factory Lofts. It very well could be this building.
I wonder how many of those cigar boxes ended up holding people's keepsakes, after the cigars were gone? I can think of two films, Amelie and Paper Moon, where children kept their treasures in cigar boxes. My grandmother kept her pictures, letters from her twin brother, and other things, in a cigar box which is now one of my treasures.
Look at the legs of the chairs: that's some precarious construction there. "Don't you move from that chair till you're done! I'll know if you do!"
I'm sure that all that wood is nailed together, but it seems a convoluted way to raise them higher. Maybe they kept sinking into the dirt?
"How do I get to the Susquehanna Hat Company?"
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