Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
"A mother hulling berries while she nurses her infant. Her other children sit beside her, also at work. Little Mabel Cuthrie [Guthrie?], 4 yrs. old started working last year." Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, Seaford, Delaware, 1910. View full size.
I remember a Mrs Guthrie that lived near Woodland DE and had a son that farms the old family farm on Woodland Road. He likely still farms today, he would be about 80. Mrs. Guthrie was in her late seventies or early eighties when I worked at the local Safeway Supermarket in the eighties.
I can't help but think it is her as the 4 year old in the photo.
Dan
PS. What a great website! My first post.
I'm tickled by the poster on the left, trying to convince you to "Use Electricity!" I imagine living in a house at the time, havine only oil lamps or candles, then one day hiring a man to come out and string wires through my house, with ceramic outlets or a single exposed bulb hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly I'm exposed to a new universe of devices that could be operated in my house. This was a fundamental shift in how people lived. I suppose the advent of the internet is a comparable equivalent.
P.S. How were people charged for electricity (pardon the pun) at the time? Meters hadn't quite been invented yet, were they?
[Electricity, and electric meters, were nothing new in 1910. First patent on an electric meter: 1872. Watthour meter Web site. - Dave]
I'm amazed mama let someone photograph her while she was nursing. That is so neat! What a lucky little one, too.
Based on 1910 census records for Sussex Co., Delaware (location of Seaford), these ladies are, from the left (with approximate ages):
Mahula Guthrie (35)
Nettie G. Guthrie (1)
Mannie M(abel) Guthrie (4)
Dora W. Guthrie (13)
Sallie J. Guthrie (11)
(Not pictured is husband/father John Guthrie, 42)
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5