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By the time the American painter Thomas Le Clear settled in Buffalo in 1847, he had already gained a national reputation as a portrait painter. His painting Buffalo Newsboy portrays a young worker pausing from his job of selling the Buffalo Evening Post, a popular daily newspaper of the time. Behind the boy, various broadsides are pasted to the walls, including one that reads, “Attention.
50 Boys Wanted,” highlighting the widespread presence of young newsboys. In the 19th century, newsboys were a common and visible form of child labor in American cities. Le Clear’s painting subtly glosses over the hardships faced by child laborers—who often worked long hours for meager pay, regardless of the weather—and thus softens the reality. The boy, his cheeks rosy from the cold, is depicted enjoying a shiny apple, seemingly unconcerned by his ill-fitting coat and worn-out boots.