Nineteenth Century Childhoods in Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives

The nineteenth century was a time when the world was becoming increasingly connected through global forces and networks. Colonial and capitalist expansion was bringing the world into closer contact while nationalism and forms of indigenous resistance were shaping and moulding the world on more local and regional scales. This dynamic environment was the backdrop for a time when childhood was becoming significantly elaborated as a cultural category of identity. Institutions, objects, and places specifically designed for children were multiplying at an unprecedented rate; writing about children in fiction and non-fiction became increasingly prolific; and the concern for children’s health and well-being in life and death was paramount in many communities. Scholarship on the nineteenth century spans many disciplines and areas of interest and utilizes diverse and abundant source material to study a period recognized as foundational for our modern, globalized world. This volume brings together scholars from archaeology, art history, bioarchaeology, educational history, history, literary studies, and theater history to present studies of nineteenth century children and childhood in Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, England, Ireland, Native North America, Romania, Russia, and the United States. The interdisciplinary focus of this volume illustrates the wealth of sources, methods, and perspectives that can be used to develop our understandings of childhood in the nineteenth century, and the international scope of the studies offers a platform to engage commonalities in an increasingly globalized world alongside an appreciation for local, regional, and national variations in the cultural creation and experiences of childhood.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Sally Crawford

List of Contributors and Author Biographies

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Nineteenth Century Childhoods in Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives
Jane Eva Baxter and Meredith Ellis

Part 1: Children, Nationalism, and Dimensions of Identity

The Manipulation of Indigenous Imagery to Represent Canadian Childhood and Nationhood in 19th Century Canada
Loren Lerner

Laying the foundation of ‘modern childhood’ in Russia: the child protection movement and the changing symbolic value of children, 1861-1917
Natalia Chernyaeva

Imagining Futures: Margaret Fuller and Nathaniel Hawthorne on Women, Children, and History
Gina Ocasion

Part 2: Children on the Move: Immigration, Emigration, and Deportation

British Children, Canadian Adults: Childhood Emigration to Canada in the Late-Nineteenth Century.
Steven J. Taylor

Transported beyond the Seas: Criminal Juveniles
Emma Watkins

Part 3: Children, Consumerism, and Advertising

“He knows a good thing when he sees it!”: Advertising to Children in the U.S., 1850-1900
Jaclyn N. Schultz

Creating Desire and Little Consumers: Doll Advertising in U.S. Newspapers, 1860-1900
Katherine Mumma and Jane Eva Baxter

Part 4: Institutions for Children and Children in Institutions

Education, Race and Nation-building in an Archipelago: Nineteenth-Century Bahamian Out Island Schools
John Daniel Burton

It Takes a Village: Raising Patriots in 19th-Century Romania
Ana Fumurescu

The Bedford Asylum: Building for the ‘Industrious Child’ in early-nineteenth century Dublin.
Katherine Fennelly

Nineteenth century institutional “education”: A spatial approach to assimilation and resistance at Hoopa Valley Indian School
Paulina F. Przystupa

Part 5: Children’s Bodies and Children’s Lives

‘The lowness of stature, the leanness and the paleness’: childhood nutritional health in 19th-century England
Holly Hunt-Watts, University of Leeds

A Tool for Moral Uplift: The Sacralization and Commemoration of a 19th-Century Child Actress
Shauna Vey, NYC College of Technology/City University of New York