Second Home: Orphan Asylums and Poor Families in America

309 Pages·1998·6.104 MB·English

by  Timothy A. Hacsi

Second Home

Second Home
Orphan Asylums and Poor Families in America
TIMOTHY A. HACSI
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
1997
Copyright © 1997 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hacsi, Timothy.
Second home: orphan asylums and poor families in America /
Timothy Hacsi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-79644-6
1. Orphanages—United States—History. I. Title.
HV983.H33 1997
362.73'2'0973—dc21 97-17063
With love and gratitude,
this book is dedicated to the people who raised me:
Papa, Mom, Jon, and most of all, my mother

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. The Growth and Triumph of an Institution 11
2. The Changing Nature of Orphan Asylums 54
3. Managers and Funding 75
4. Through the Asylum Doors 104
5. Routine, Discipline, and Improvements in Asylum Life 148
6. Education and Building Character 173
7. Play, Holidays, and Vacations 196
Conclusion 213
Appendix: Supplementary Tables 225
Notes 231
Bibliography 269
Index 283

Acknowledgments
Small moments can have surprisingly large outcomes, and the story of
this book began when I was the beneficiary of one such moment. In the
winter of 1988, Michael Katz and I spoke on the phone about my ap-
plication to the University of Pennsylvania's graduate history program.
That conversation led to my visiting Penn even though I'd thought I
was going elsewhere; my visit led to my enrolling there. It was one of
the best decisions of my life. While at Penn I learned a great deal from
my fellow history graduate students, and I want to especially thank
George Barnett, Dana Barron, Rose Beiler, Debbie Block, Celia Cusson,
Sherman Dorn, Thomas Heinrich, Lara Iglitzen, Alison Isenberg, Mary
McNear, Max Page, Sue Schulton, Marc Stein, Victoria Thompson, and
Monica Tetzlaff. In addition, I owe a great debt to Steve Conn, Jim
Heinzen, Jeff Horn, Dave Kerans, Mark Meier, John Noakes, Liam Rior-
dan, Rubin Sinins, Dave Smith, and Tim Waples.
Of course, I also benefitted from studying with a number of superb
professors at Penn. Richard Dunn generously volunteered to teach a class
on writing dissertation proposals that helped shape my questions. Two
years later, Michael Zuckerman gave what was then the first chapter
such a thorough reading that the rest of the manuscript was vastly
improved. Mark Stern read most of the dissertation and gave me a great
deal of useful advice, not the least of which was his warning against
getting bogged down in case records in a study that was intended to be
broad. Walter Licht gave the dissertation a thorough and incisive read-
ing, in the process giving me the key to turning it into a book. Finally,
Michael Katz was my adviser. Few historians can match Michael's un-
derstanding of the complexities of history. Just as importantly, he main-
tained a high level of intellectual rigor for his students while helping to
create the collégial, supportive, non-competitive atmosphere that helps
ix
χ Acknowledgments
make Penn's graduate history program a special place. I could not have
asked for a better mentor—or a better friend.
As an undergraduate at Oberlin College, I was fortunate to study
under a number of dedicated teachers. I would like to thank Geoffrey
Blodgett, Carol Lasser, and the late Robert Neil for encouraging my
interest in history. Gary Kornblith was my undergraduate thesis adviser,
and he became a friend as well as a mentor. His understanding of the
contours of American history, and his dedication to teaching his stu-
dents how to think for themselves about history, are benchmarks to
which we should all aspire. At Harvard University Press, Aida Donald
and Elizabeth Suttell have been consistently helpful and have given me
good advice throughout an unfamiliar process. I would also like to
thank Linda McLatchie for greatly improving the manuscript. At Chapin
Hall, I would like to thank Harold Richman, Larry Stanton, Rebecca
Stone, and Liz Hurley for providing a supportive environment and
different viewpoints on many things. I would especially like to thank
Joan Costello, and my fellow Fellows in Chicago: Kathy Hall, Sudhir
Venkatesh, and Sam Whalen. I owe Bernadine Barr and Ann Brown
special thanks for managing to keep me in academia, at least for now. I
would also like to thank Allan Brandt and Alberta Siegel for encouraging
my work when it was most needed. The two readers for Harvard Uni-
versity Press made a number of suggestions that helped improve the
manuscript noticeably, for which I am grateful.
There are a number of other people I would like to thank, though in
some cases for reasons only marginally related to this book: Dana Barron
and Tom Sugrue, Kelly and Henry Kingdon, Joy Kammerling and Dave
Smith, Paul, Mari, Katie, and Tommy O'Neill, Chris Hunter, Robin
Jaslow, Debby Levy, Linda Lowenthal, Mark Meier, Beth Fordham-Meier,
and especially Christy Goldfinch, who had to put up with me when this,
in its dissertation form, dominated my life. Finally, I want to thank the
four members of my family who raised me, and did so in the least
"institutional" manner imaginable. My maternal grandmother ("Mom"
to the whole family) passed away a few months before I received my
Ph.D., and my father passed away while I was trying to turn the disser-
tation into a book. I wish they had lived to hold this in their hands. My
older brother Jon was, among many other things, the best of friends and
a role model for life. I cannot imagine what my life would have been
like without him. Finally, I want to thank my mother, for all the usual
reasons and many more. This book is dedicated to them.