08/01/2026
Update: Thank you all for your comments. I will work on a Presentation on Addie Card for next spring.
I will keep you posted on a date, place and time.
In the meantime don’t forget the Witches’ Walk on September 12th at Strobridge Park, Dean Road, North Pownal at noon and the Community Tree Lighting in December.
( This is the eleventh in a series of random popup Pownal photos that I will write a story about. Hope you enjoy reading it. Please follow the Pownal Historical Society’s page so you will be notified when the next story photo pops up.)
Addie Laird… or Addie Card?
The “Anemic Little Spinner”
For decades, the little barefoot girl photographed in 1910 standing in front of a spinning machine at the North Pownal Cotton Mill was believed to be Addie Laird. Photographer Lewis Wickes Hine titled the image “Anemic Little Spinner.”
Hine had been commissioned by the National Child Labor Committee to document child labor throughout the United States. Traveling undercover, he couldn’t openly carry a notebook, so he taught himself to write notes on a pad hidden in his pocket. With his hand inside his coat, he quietly recorded names and details without attracting attention.
When Hine’s notes were later deciphered, the girl’s name was interpreted as “Addie Laird.” Because many mill workers were French Canadian families living in the row houses across from the mill on “French Hill,” it was assumed she was French Canadian as well.
For nearly a century, that mistaken identity became accepted as fact.
But who was this little girl, really?
In 2004, author Elizabeth Winthrop became captivated after seeing Hine’s photograph at an exhibit in Bennington. She contacted the Pownal Historical Society, where Ken and I shared everything we knew about the mysterious child.
Inspired by the photograph, Elizabeth wrote the novel “Counting on Grace,” published in 2006. Although the main character was fictional and named Grace, she was inspired by the little spinner from North Pownal.
Wanting to uncover the girl’s real identity, Elizabeth enlisted genealogist and researcher Joe Manning. His research changed history.
The little girl wasn’t Addie Laird at all.
She was Addie Card.
Her mother, Susan Harris, was from Pownal, and her father, Emmett Card, was also a local resident. After nearly a century, Addie finally regained her true identity.
The famous photograph of Addie standing barefoot beside the spinning machine became one of the most recognizable images of child labor in America. It helped symbolize the movement that led to child labor reform, appeared on the 1998 U.S. Child Labor Reform postage stamp, and was even used by Reebok in a modern advertising campaign condemning child labor.
Stories like Addie’s remind us why local history matters. Sometimes preserving history also means correcting it.
At the Pownal Historical Society, that’s exactly what we strive to do.
There is so much more to Addie’s story—her hardships, heartbreaks, and what became of her after she left the mill—that I couldn’t fit into one post.
If I were to put together a presentation on the remarkable life of Addie Card, would you attend? Let me know in the comments. I think you’ll find the rest of her story just as compelling as the photograph that made her famous.
Note- Her birth card has her as “No Name” Card. She was named, “Adeline”. She didn’t like her name so she later became “Pat”.
