Kinship by Design: A History of Adoption in the Modern United States

394 Pages·2008·2.42 MB·English

by  Ellen Herman

Kinship by Design

Kinship by Design
A History of Adoption in the
Modern United States
EllEn HErMAn
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and london
Ellen Herman is professor of history at the University of Oregon.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, ltd., london

©2008 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2008
Printed in the United States of America
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 1 2 3 4 5
ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32759-4 (cloth)
ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32760-0 (paper)
ISBn-10: 0-226-32759-0 (cloth)
ISBn-10: 0-226-32760-4 (paper)
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Herman, Ellen, 1957–
Kinship by design : a history of adoption in the modern United States /
Ellen Herman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32759-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBn-10: 0-226-32759-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBn-13: 978-0-226-32760-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBn-10: 0-226-32760-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Adoption—United States—History—20th century. 2. Orphans—United
States—History—20th century. I. Title.
HV875.55.H47 2008
362.7340973—dc22 2008002077
¥ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
the American national Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed library Materials, AnSI Z39.48-1992.
The striving to make stability of meaning prevail over the instability of events is the
main task of intelligent human effort.
john dewey, Experience and Nature, 1925

COnTEnTS
Acknowledgments / ix
InTrODUCTIOn / Family Making in an Age of Uncertainty / 1
Part i : regulation and interPretation, 1900–1945
OnE / The Perils of Money and Sentiment (and Custom, Accident,
Impulse, Intuition, Common Sense, Faith, and Bad Blood) / 21
TwO / Making Adoption Governable / 55
THrEE / rules for realness / 83
Part ii : Standardization and naturalization, 1930–1960
FOUr / Matching and the Mirror of nature / 121
FIVE / The Measure of Other People’s Children / 155
Part iii : difference and damage, 1945–1975
SIx / Adoption revolutions / 195
SEVEn / The Difference Difference Makes / 229
EIGHT / Damaged Children, Therapeutic lives / 253
EPIlOGUE / reckoning with risk / 285
Notes / 301 Index / 373

ACKnOwlEDGMEnTS
I am not certain about many things, but I am certain I would not have been
able to write a single coherent sentence without the many peole who offered
moral support, material assistance, and the gifts of friendship and simple
curiosity along the way.
My first debt is to the talented scholars who began making adoption
history visible at the very moment I stumbled on the topic. Bernadine Barr,
laura Briggs, wayne Carp, Joan Hollinger, randy Kennedy, Barbara Melosh,
Margaret rhodes, and nikki Strong-Boag have been unfailingly encouraging
teachers and supportive colleagues. For generously agreeing to read drafts,
sometimes more than once, I wish to thank Bernadine Barr, Betty Bayer,
laura Briggs, John Carson, Fran Cherry, Joan Hollinger, Jeff Ostler, and Mar-
garet rhodes. wayne Carp, robert D. Johnston, and Barbara Melosh read
this book in manuscript for the University of Chicago Press. Their incisive
questions renewed my determination to aim high at a point when my en-
ergy was low. That I could not follow through on all of their challenging
suggestions suggests my own limitations rather than theirs.
like those adoptees who struggle to recover documentary evidence of
their life stories, we historians cannot pursue our craft without dedicated
record keepers who guard traces of the past. Archivists Dave Klaassen at the
University of Minnesota’s Social welfare History Archives, Steve novak at
Columbia Medical School’s Archives and Special Collections, Jeff Flannery
at the library of Congress, and Brother John Sheperd at Catholic Universi-
ty’s Department of Archives and Manuscripts were especially helpful. At the
national Archives, Jim Hastings came to my rescue at a crucial moment.
Historians everywhere are indebted to interlibrary loan, and I am grateful
to the staff at widener and Knight libraries.