February Made Them Shiver
1923 Photos of Lowell Children Sent to Soften President Harding
All photos courtesy of the Harding Presidential Library
By Brad MacGowan
Two years ago, the Ohio History Connection wrote a blog about a Lowell photographic plea to help freezing children. One-hundred years ago this petition was sent to directly to President Harding .
I saw the images while participating in the early stages of research into Annie Powell’s photography. I was struck by how closely they matched what we knew of her techniques and style choices: heavy negative retouching, highly choreographed storytelling, and religious symbolism. I wrote a vlog concerning these points, that since then they have been corroborated through details of her life and work.
We don't know if President Warren Harding was haunted by or even saw the images of children lined up on that sub-zero February day at the Lowell Gas Light Company. Fuel was in short supply and rationed following strikes by train and mine workers.
The images came from the archives of the Harding Presidential Library, in Marion, Ohio, near where Harding was born and began his political service.
Three photographs were mailed to then Representative John Jacob Rogers accompanied by a letter from Edward J. Cooney of the Lowell Gas Light Company. The images were an attempt to show President Harding the dire seriousness of the situation.
In addition, the coal photos, like others Annie took (for example those in George Kenngott’s 1912 book The Record of a City), make social statements that are personal to the photographer and reflect a point of view: a staunch concern for the welfare of children.
On the verso (back) of the photo is handwritten with the date of February 24, 1923. It also records a glacial temperature of –10ᵒ at 5:30 a.m.
In this blowup of the first image, the girl with her back to the camera is separated from the others, and is looking off to the bright area in the distance beyond the buildings. Also notice the “corridor of light” which is a common visual element in Annie’s photos, as is the frequent photo retouching.
This photo taken on Fourth Street, a few miles away from the coal supply area, shows the significant amount of snow as well as the long journey taken to secure the coal. The sled seems drawn in, appearing unbalanced, lacking depth and shading.
This photo displays the linear perspective of the scene, the hand-drawn shadow of the photographer, line retouching, and corridor of light. The trope of the photographer’s shadow is one Annie used many times in her City Engineers and Proprietors of Locks & Canals photographs, similar to that of photographer Lewis Hines, whose work was widely published at that time.
While the main focus are the children around the steam source. There is a girl in profile to the left attempting to move toward the group around the steam. The figure behind her is holding her arm.
By including her shadow, Annie is incorporating herself into the scene as well as the situation. She is both part of the crowd and separate from it, watching over it. Again, we see that the story told in the photo was very particular to the photographer. As such, it was possibly not just a journalistic treatment, but a social commentary as well.
The pictures act as evidence of what was most certainly an appalling set of circumstances. The images also helped a concerned energy company executive demonstrate to the U.S. President that the suffering caused by the coal shortage was an urgent reality, and thanks to a local photographer who used her art to give us pictures that still speak century later.
During my research, I examined more photographs of the coal shortage in the Harding papers. I’ll discuss these photographs in future newsletters.
Brad MacGowan is a Lowell historian and by Annie Powell board member. Brad is collaborating with Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! on a presentation commemorating Kerouac’s 103rd birthday at Pollard Library on Saturday, March 8 at 2 p.m.
Published in our newsletter 2/7/2025
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