Market Reform
Progressive Era activists used photography as a medium for social reform. Progressives wanted to improve American education, housing, public health, and labor conditions. A couple of these reformers took photographs at Center Market.
"10:30 P.M. At Center Market. 11 yr. old Celery Vendor Gus Strateges, 212 Jackson Hall Alley. He sold until 11 P.M. and was out again Sunday morning selling papers and gum. Has been in this country only a year and a half "
Lewis Hine took this photograph as part of his work for the National Child Labor Committee. The image and its caption create compassion and concern for the child worker.
"A Good Type of One of the Successful Colored Women at the Center Market, Virginia End, Ninth and B Streets"
Courtesy DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Division
Alice Underwood Hunt, the former first lady of Colorado, took portraits of Center Market vendors in the 1910s. Hunt was active in D.C. charitable causes and was a founder of the Home for the Blind in Georgetown.
The captions originally accompanied the photographs as handwritten notes.
"This Old Colored Woman Sold Vegetables From Her Wagon at Center Market for Over Forty Years"
Courtesy DC Public Library, Washingtoniana Division