Engaging in student-centered learning with primary sources has become a priority in the teaching of history in classrooms throughout the educational spectrum. Approaching photographic evidence in the history classroom through a contextualized and systematic method of analysis is one way of involving students actively in their own education while at the same time introducing them to using alternative sources in their research and writing. While each photographer must be approached as an individual author, analyzing the work of Lewis Hine can introduce both teachers and students to utilizing photographs as sources of primary historical information. Mining a Lewis Hine image for evidence of material culture could accompany a social studies lesson plan regarding social or cultural history of the early twentieth century. In this article, students and educators can find basic information necessary to interpreting Lewis Hine's images as well as a methodology that can be disconnected from Hine's work and applied to any social documentary photograph. This article is as much pedagogical in nature as it is intended for professional development.