History
Lewis Hine’s portrait of Addie Card and the evidence in captions
Hine paired a child’s mill portrait with detailed notes that challenged the employer’s account of her age.
Lewis Hine’s portrait of Addie Card is inseparable from the caption written around it. The photograph’s title preserves a discrepancy between the age she reported and what other mill workers said, showing how field notes can change what a portrait means.
A portrait with a record attached
The Met catalog dates the photograph to August 1910 and reproduces Hine’s description of Card as a spinner at a cotton mill in North Pownal, Vermont. The note records that girls at the mill said she was ten, while she told Hine she was twelve.
Hine joined the National Child Labor Committee as investigator and photographer in 1908. The museum notes that he often worked undercover to enter workplaces and that his photographs were used in reports, exhibitions, pamphlets and slide lectures.
Evidence: Museum collection record
Captions add a second kind of evidence
The picture shows a young worker, but the written record adds location, occupation, date and disputed age. Those details help historians understand the image’s purpose as part of a reform campaign rather than as a generic childhood portrait.
A caption is not automatically neutral: it may reflect what a photographer could verify, what a subject said, and what an organization wanted to communicate. Keeping the image and its notes together preserves that context.
Evidence: Museum collection record
From evidence to public argument
Hine’s photographs moved through field reports, displays, pamphlets and lectures. Different formats brought the same image before audiences who might never visit a mill or meet the photographed child.
Unlike an ID strip kept by its sitter, Hine’s documentary portrait was made to influence public understanding.
Evidence: Museum collection record
Sources & further reading
Sources for the specific facts and product descriptions above. Our worked examples, interpretations and practical suggestions are original editorial guidance.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Lewis Hine, Addie Card at North Pownal Cotton MillMuseum collection record