My research indicates that near the weekend of August 12-13, 1911, Lewis Hine traveled by train to Eastport, Maine, most likely from New York City. According to several local historians I talked to, he probably would have arrived at the railroad station on Washington Street. It has since been demolished, and its location is presently occupied by an IGA grocery store. It's likely that Hine took a room at the Riverside, a downtown hotel on Water Street that overlooked the Passamaquoddy Bay and Seacoast Cannery factories #4 and #5. The hotel is also gone, the location now being occupied by the Motel East. Hine would spend almost a week in the city, taking more than 50 photographs of child laborers cutting and packing fish, and then he would board the train and head to New Bedford, Massachusetts to photograph children working in textile mills. He would continue this work, with few interruptions, for another six years.

On Sunday, August 8, 2010, just one week short of exactly 99 years later, my wife and I drove to Eastport from our home in Massachusetts. On Monday afternoon, we checked into the Kilby House Inn, just a few blocks north of where Hine had stayed. I was visiting Eastport for three reasons: to make a presentation at the Peavey Library about the Lewis Hine Project, to meet some of the descendants of Eastport child laborers I have researched, and to walk in the footsteps of the great Mr. Hine.

As soon as we unpacked, I grabbed my camera and headed to the city's tiny downtown. Having seen many pictures of Eastport on the Web, and of course the Hine pictures, a lot looked familiar. But there's nothing like being there to give you a sense of scale, to hear the unique sounds of the environment, and to feel the ground under your feet. It was amazing. There I was looking down Sea Street, where Hine frequently staked out the territory, waiting for young cannery workers he could capture with his camera.

One of the first things I wanted to do was find the house at 1 Eagle Street, where 8-year-old Phoebe Thomas was living the day she ran home screaming from work because she had cut her thumb badly. Somehow, Hine was right there when it happened. He caught her on Sea Street, just below what is now Motel East. In the photo, it looks like she was turning to head up Shackford St., which would have taken her to Water St., where she would have made a left and scampered down to Eagle Street. So that's what I did. It took me two minutes, but I wasn't running and screaming. I found the house and knocked on the door so I could let someone know that I wanted to take a picture of it. A woman opened the door.

"Hi, I'm Joe Manning," I said, and I..." "Hi, Joe," she interjected. "I'm Sally. I know who you are. I'm coming to your presentation tonight. I was just reading about you. Come on in."

I spotted a copy of Counting On Grace on the kitchen table. That's Elizabeth Winthrop's book about Addie Card, a mill girl that Hine photographed in Vermont. That's what got me started on this project. I told her why I wanted to photograph the house, and she was excited to learn that Phoebe Thomas had lived there. She had already seen Hine's photos of her. We chatted for a few minutes, and then I went out and took some pictures. "See you tonight," she said. A couple of minutes later, I found the house where Phoebe was living in 1920.