"Age Ought to Be a Fact": The Campaign against Child Labor and the Rise of the Birth Certificate.

The article discusses the relationship between birth certificates and child labor laws in the U.S. from the 1870s through the 1930s, including efforts of labor reformers to have employers use age to regulate youth employment. An overview of parents' perspectives on their children's ages, including in regard to their lack of documentation of their children's birth dates, is provided. The role that the U.S. census played in maintaining records on age and birth dates is discussed.