Rediscovering lost innocence : archaeology at the State Home and School

The Resource Rediscovering lost innocence : archaeology at the State Home and School

Label

Rediscovering lost innocence : archaeology at the State Home and School

Title remainder

archaeology at the State Home and School

Statement of responsibility

E. Pierre Morenon

Language

eng

Summary

In the first half of the nineteenth century, responsibility for child care primarily rested with families. Needy children were often cared for by community-sponsored efforts that varied widely in quality, as well as by benevolent organizations dedicated to children's welfare. The late 1800s were marked "by major social serive infrastructure construction and development. During this period, guided by progressive concerns about the state's role in responding to societal changes resulting from urbanization and industrialization, Rhode Island took on a more active statewide role in public education, sewers, parks, prisons, and child welfare systems. New ideas about civil rights extended to race, women, labor, and children. Old institutions, such as town almshouses and poor farms, were replaced with state institutions, such as the State Home and School for Dependent and Neglected Children, which opened in 1885. One might expect to find a huge record for custodial children well embedded in regional childhood narratives about the former residents of the State Home upon which to build. However, varied narratives about custodial children developed as researchers dug into soils, read unexamined case histories, and talked with former residents. The State House remains an important place because thousands of children and citizens lived portions of their lives there. Documenting children's educational, social, and health experiences is not inconsequential. Archaeology offers the possibility of recovering lost and missing details and, in collaboration with other disciplines, creates a rich narrative of a place. These experiences were significant in our past, and they are important to us in the present and future generations; they demonstrate our common history

Cataloging source

NLM

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Context

Context of Rediscovering lost innocence : archaeology at the State Home and School

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