The Gaston County Public Library has received an honor for a collaborative project documenting Gaston¡¯s history in the textile industry. The North Carolina Humanities Council bestowed the 2011 Harlan Joel Grandin Award of Excellence in Public Humanities to the library for ¡°Standing on a Box: Lewis Hine¡¯s National Child Labor Committee Photography in Gaston County, 1908.¡± Gaston County Public Library Director Cindy Moose and the library¡¯s program coordinator, Carol Reinhardt, traveled to Durham on Oct. 21 to receive the accolade in the form of an engraved plaque. The project explored child labor conditions in Greater Gaston¡¯s textile mills at the turn of the 19th century by using photographs taken by Hine, a sociologist, reformer and National Child Labor Committee journalist. Reinhardt called the award a ¡°really good recognition¡± of the partnership power the library shares with the community. Project partners include the Gaston County Museum of Art and History, the Gaston County Historic Preservation Committee, Friends of the Gaston County Public Library, the Gaston Arts Council, Preservation North Carolina, the Levine Museum of the New South, and Gaston schools and churches. ¡°I think it¡¯s a nice acknowledgment of the community support of the library and these other agencies,¡± Reinhardt said. ¡°It was just a very gratifying experience to see such unity in our communities.¡± The photographs traveled around Gaston County and were displayed at the Gaston Museum of Art and History in Dallas, the Levine Museum of the New South and at Gaston College¡¯s campuses in Dallas, Belmont and Lincoln County. Reinhardt said people ¡°flocked¡± to these venues to see the project and a lot of people saw it more than once. Plans are to permanently house the project at the Loray Mill in Gastonia, after planned renovations there are complete.
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