Counting on Grace (25 page)
Authors: Elizabeth Winthrop
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor
, by Russell Freedman, Clarion Books, 1994.
Immigrant Kids
, by Russell Freedman, Puffin Books, 1995.
Lewis W. Hine: Children at Work
, by Vicki Goldberg, Prestel Publishing, 1999.
America and Lewis Hine: Photographs, 1904-1940
, foreword by Walter Rosenblum, Aperture Books/Brooklyn Museum, 1997.
America Through the Lens: Photographers Who Changed the Nation
, by Martin W. Sandier, Henry Holt, 2005.
Crusade for the Children: A History of the National Child Labor Committee and Child Labor Reform in America
, by Walter I. Trattner, Quadrangle Books, 1970.
Here are some Web sites where you can find information about child labor, as well as other photographs that Lewis Hine took of children in the years 1907 to 1918.
Lewis Hine Collection, Albin O. Kuhn Library, University of Maryland. This site shows Addie's picture, as well as five other photographs that Lewis Hine took in North Pownal in 1910 and notations made on those photographs:
A brief history of child labor in the United States:
www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/
The Library of Congress collections of Hine photographs are cataloged here:
www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/207-b.html
The National Archives site shows one hundred years of photography from its collections:
www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/picturing_the_century/portfolios/port_hine.html
The George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, has a large collection of Hine photographs:
While they cannot be held responsible for any errors I have made in the telling of this story, I wish to thank the following individuals, who were generous with their time and expertise:
John Goodwin, who took a great deal of time to help me understand the workings of the spinning frame and the process of textile production in general. His patience and his technical knowledge proved invaluable.
Linda Hall, a researcher and librarian herself, who steered me in many helpful directions, from unpublished information on French Canadians in New England to details about the town of North Pownal to help with finding Addie.
Ken and Joyce Held of the North Pownal Historical Society, who have been enthusiastic supporters of this project from the beginning and who work tirelessly to give their community a sense of its unique history.
Nichole Frocheur, for her detailed description of the developing process for glass-plate negatives and her close reading of the manuscript.
Betty Boudreau, who took time from her busy life to give me a tour of North Pownal.
Rob Niederman, a camera historian, who gave generously
of his time and expertise in helping me to understand the workings of cameras and the developing process in Hine's era.
Todd Gustavson of the George Eastman House, for answers to specific questions about Lewis Hine's equipment and techniques.
Debbie Sprague, who showed me her own personal research on her French Canadian heritage.
DISCLAIMERS
Experts disagree on exactly which camera Lewis Hine used in 1910. He did own a five-by-seven-inch Graflex later in his career, and I could not resist the temptation of having Grace meet “Mr. Graflex,” since their names shared those first three letters.
In actual fact, in 1910, the State of Vermont did not require proof of age when children came into the mills, but the practice of demanding birth certificates varied from one factory to the next, depending on who was the superintendent and how recently a state labor investigator had visited.
Although I have set my story in North Pownal, Vermont, in a cotton textile mill that functioned there from the 1860s through the 1930s, I have changed certain geographical and historical details of the town and surrounding area.
As I always say when writing historical fiction, I'm not saying it happened, I'm saying it could have happened.
Elizabeth Winthrop is the bestselling author of more than fifty books for readers of all ages, including the award-winning classic
The Castle in the Attic
and its sequel,
The Battle for the Castle.
Her popular picture books include
Dumpy La Rue, Dog Show
, and
Shoes.
Her most recent novel for middle-grade readers,
The Red-Hot Rattoons
, is a comic fantasy set in New York City, where the author makes her home for half the year. For the remaining months, she lives in northwestern Massachusetts, two miles from the small Vermont mill town where
Counting on Grace
is set.
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For information address Wendy Lamb Books.
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eISBN: 978-0-307-51822-4
v3.0