PRACTICE BABIES

[aslant]

Practice babies for home economics students at Cornell University, 1919-1949




"Each student in the homemaking apartments takes entire responsibility for the care of the baby for one week."

Practice babies,
Practice babies,
Practice babies.

"I'm sure I got excellent care. That's not the hurtful part," said Kirkham. "It's that I was used."

I could drive down to Corvallis to see some photos of Oregon practice babies.

Comments

[brickred.livejournal.com]

HOLY COW. That is amazing & unbelievable. Wow.

[aslant.livejournal.com]

yeah. talk about a history of higher ed research paper i wish i'd written! it would have been so fun to look into this.

also, although i find the willful ignorance of attachment kind of freaky, i have to admit that "raised by 40 women" and the alternative "raised in a 1940s orphanage" sound equally distressing. in one of the sources i found, well-off couples were very eager to adopt these babies, because they were seen as 'scientifically raised.' so maybe that is a good thing. though of course you would think they'd be considerably damaged by it!

[manganese.livejournal.com]

"raised by Haven-Wesley"

[aslant.livejournal.com]

lol!

now that does sound a little horrifying!