Posted by Administrator on 4/20/2012 to
Featured Ad Series of the Week
One thing that I have always found interesting about vintage advertising is how much the world has changed in such a relatively short period of time. Advertising really gives us good insight to the culture of a particular era. I was recently struck by two advertisements we recently listed on our site. These ads were from the National Child Labor Committee, and illustrate some of the early stages in reforming child labor laws in the United States. | |
These ads prompted me to research the history of Child Labor laws, and I was shocked to realize that the first child labor law wasn't passed in the U.S. until 1916 (the Keating-Owen Act), which was subsequently overturned by the Supreme court in 1918. The U.S. really didn't have any long-standing Child Labor laws on the books until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. So, it's really only been about 75 years that children have had much protection in our work force. You may even know people today that worked as children before these laws were passed! As a parent, I am thankful for the progress that organizations like the National Child Labor Committee were able to help bring about. | |