AUGUSTA — An upcoming Maine State Museum event on Thursday, June 25, features “Lives that Matter: Stories of Child Laborers in Eastport, Maine”

Joe Manning, a Massachusetts author and historian, headlines the event with a presentation, “Lives that Matter: Stories of Child Laborers in Eastport, Maine.” Manning’s presentation will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday. The talk is free.

Manning’s illustrated talk centers on the photographs of Lewis Hine. Working for the National Child Labor Committee beginning in 1908, Hine took more than 5,000 photographs of child laborers nationwide in an effort to expose their plight and end child labor in the United States. Manning has worked for nine years to identify and tell the stories of those children by finding and interviewing their descendants.

In Maine, Hine took more than 50 photographs of children, some as young as age 6, working for fish canneries in Eastport in 1911. Manning will show some of the Eastport photographs, tell the stories of the children and talk about the process of searching for descendants, most of whom were not aware of the pictures.

A social worker for 30 years, Manning retired in 1999 to devote his time to his writing career. His Lewis Hine project has been featured on CBS Evening News, several news and interview programs on National Public Radio and in Yankee Magazine.

The museum is located at 230 State St. For more information, see the museum’s website, www.mainestatemuseum.org or call 207-287-2301.