Children of the 1900s

Children and Growing Up

Popular 1900s Names – Many of the names for children born in this decade were what we would consider “classic” names in the early 21st century, like: John, William, James, Robert, Mary, Helen, Dorothy, and Margaret. These names were also among the most popular during the following decade.

For many, being a child during the early 1900s was difficult. Child labor, even for rather young children, was still legal in the United States and would remain legal, in some form, for many more years, although people were starting to become concerned about how young was too young to work, what kind of education working children would receive, and what types of work should be considered unsuitable for children. Children growing up on family farms would naturally engage in farm chores, supervised by parents and older siblings, but as the country became more industrialized, children were increasingly used in factories. Concerns were raised about the hours that children worked and the dangers involved in operating certain types of machinery. Children were also used in coal mining, which had its own dangers and health risks. Poor families and immigrants often relied on money that their children earned to help make ends meet, and industries profited from their cheap labor, which made it difficult to keep rules and limits in place for the children’s welfare. This video describes the conditions of child labor around the turn of the century and the pictures taken by Lewis Hine to make child labor conditions public. It also discusses Lewis Hine's photographic techniques. Because of his work for the National Child Labor Committee, Lewis Hine received death threats from people who did not want child labor conditions exposed, and he frequently had trouble gaining access to the places where the children worked. Sometimes, he had to wait outside these places for the workers to get off their shifts in order to talk to them.

The practice of sending homeless or parentless children on “Orphan Trains” (typically called “Baby Trains” or “Mercy Trains” at the time) from the big cities on the East Coast of the United States to live and work on farms in the Midwest (or even further west) began in the 1850s and continued until the 1920s. The theory was that living in the country and working on farms would be more wholesome for them than remaining in crowded cities. It worked out very well for some of the children, however some were simply exploited as a source of cheap labor on farms. The practice declined and eventually ended in the 1920s, due to an increasing number of states passing laws against placing children in new homes across state lines (End of an Era). The Orphan Trains can be considered the earliest form of formal, documented foster care in the United States. This video explains more about the origins of the orphan trains.

Children from more affluent families were more likely to focus on education rather than working, although many did not pursue higher education. In those days, not many jobs required college degrees, and more people could get decent jobs with a high school education or less. (Back when I was studying journalism, my teacher explained that newspaper articles are traditionally written at about an 8th grade reading level (roughly age 13 or 14 in the United States), partly to make them accessible for different age groups and reading abilities and partly because, for a long time, that was about the standard education level of adults who could read.)

It was common for babies to be delivered at home rather than in a hospital, and in the case of families who lived in rural areas, it was more likely that the birth would be attended by family members or women from neighboring farms than by a physician. Infant mortality rates were higher during this period than in modern times because the level medical care available wasn’t as good, antibiotics like penicillin had not yet been developed so infectious diseases were more likely to turn deadly, and there were less vaccines for preventing diseases in the first place. It was fairly common for families to lose at least one child in infancy. This is also part of the reason why the overall life expectancy was lower. It wasn’t that adults would always die at a much younger age (although that did happen sometimes because of diseases or accidents); it was also that quite a lot of people didn’t make it to adulthood, or even out of early childhood, in the first place. If a person managed to survive some of the riskier points of life, such as early childhood or the child-bearing years for women, their odds of living to what we might consider a more normal lifespan might be better than you think. People who lived at this time period would have been aware of the dangers of diseases and other risks for themselves and their children, and they would have known that even if they survived to adulthood, they might well lose a child someday.

The early 1900s laid the foundation for youth scouting and camping organizations, such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides/Girl Scouts organizations that would be founded in the following decade. The principles of scouting for children and youths were laid out in Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys, which was published in 1908 in London. Robert Baden-Powell was a lieutenant-general in the British army, and he believed in the value of teaching boys outdoor skills as well as the values of self-discipline and self improvement. His ideas appealed to people who were concerned about the increasing urbanization of society and who felt that children were not being taught traditional values, outdoor skills, and a number of practical skills. The Boy Scout Movement began in the British Empire following the publication of Baden-Powell’s book, and it quickly spread to the United States. Various scouting groups were formed in both countries around this time, but not all of them lasted past the early 20th century. The major groups in the United States were formed during the 1910s.

Children's Toys

Teddy bears, now considered a classic children's toy, were invented in the early 1900s. The inspiration for the stuffed toy bears was a hunting trip taken by Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt in which he refused to shoot a particular bear under circumstances that he deemed unsporting. Actually, the incident didn't end well for the bear anyway, but word spread about the incident. A couple who owned a candy store in Brooklyn, the Michtoms, made a small stuffed bear and put it in their shop window, calling it "Teddy's Bear." The little bear was very popular, and several people asked if they could buy it. The Michtoms wondered if they could make and sell more bears like that one, so they mailed the original stuffed bear to President Roosevelt at the White House and asked him for permission to use his name with their stuffed bears. Roosevelt agreed, and the stuffed "Teddy" bears sold by the Michtoms became incredibly popular. The Michtoms became wealthy and formed the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company (The History of the Teddy Bear: From Wet and Angry to Soft and Cuddly). The Ideal Novelty and Toy Company continued producing a variety of toys and dolls for many decades, some of which are now expensive collectors' items.

This decade saw the invention of wax crayons for children. The earliest crayons were for adult artists, and some of the substances they contained were harmful. In 1903, a chemical company called Binney and Smith developed a wax crayon that was safe for children and began marketing it to schools. Each box of crayons cost a nickel and contained eight colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, and black. They gave their brand of crayons the name "Crayola," which was a suggestion of Alice Binney, who had been a schoolteacher. It was a shortening of the French words for "oily chalk." Over the years, Crayola expanded its line of crayons and also began producing colored pencils and markers (The Inventors of Crayons: Binney and Smith).

Children's Books

In children’s literature, this was the decade of the founding of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, which occurred in 1905. By then, the founder, Edward Stratemeyer, had already begun producing his first children’s series, but it would be years yet before the Syndicate produced some of the series for which it would be best known, such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series. The Syndicate soon developed successful patterns for producing series of children’s books and continued producing new series throughout the following decades. Even early in the Syndicate’s history, it faced criticism for producing formulaic series which caused children to be “mentally lazy.” However, children enjoyed the various series the Syndicate created, which featured children and young people who had exciting adventures and solved mysteries, often with little or no help from older adults. Many of the early Syndicate books were rewritten during the mid-20th century to reflect changes in technology and society, so keep in mind that, even if you read a later copy of a book with the same title as one of the early ones, it may not be quite the same story. Racial attitudes in early Syndicate books are something in particular which changed in later books and rewrites. (Watch this in the original editions of the Bobbsey Twins series and all of The Rover Boys books. I was surprised.)

A number of iconic characters and series in children’s literature began during this decade as well, including Peter Pan, Anne of Green Gables, and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz books. Among the popular children's books that were published during 1900s were:

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) - A young farm girl is carried off to a magical land by a tornado. By L. Frank Baum.
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901, 1902) - Peter Rabbit disobeys his mother’s instructions and is almost caught by a farmer in his garden. By Beatrix Potter.
• Five Children and It (1902) - A group of siblings encounter a magical being that grants them wishes, but none of their wishes goes as planned! By E. Nesbit.
• The Flight of Pony Baker (1902) - Frank Baker, whose nickname is Pony, is tired of life at home, where his mother is overprotective, treating him like a little kid and making him play with his five sisters. An older friend (one his mother doesn’t approve of) suggests to him that he run away from home. Pony tries various schemes to run away, but each time, Pony changes his mind and returns home. Eventually, he realizes that his friend isn’t much of a friend for goading him into running away, and his mother gives birth to a younger brother for Pony, meaning that he will no longer be the only boy and his mother will not look at him as such a baby himself. The book is set in Ohio in the 1850’s. By William Dean Howells.
• Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903) - When her family falls on hard times, young Rebecca is sent to live with her aunts, who had been really hoping that her mother would send Rebecca’s practical older sister instead. Rebecca is a dreamy, imaginative girl, but in spite of her Aunt Miranda’s impatience with her, she charms everyone and earns their respect. By Kate Douglas Wiggin.
• A Little Princess (1905) - Young Sara is a bright, imaginative girl attending a boarding school in England. However, when word arrives that her father is dead and that Sara is destitute, Sara’s situation abruptly changes from that of one of the school’s favorite students to that of a mere charity case. Sara is now forced to work as a servant for the school, but Sara is a spirited girl and manages to make a new life for herself until she makes an important discovery about her father. By Frances Hodgson Burnett.
• The Railway Children (1906) - When their father is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, three children move to a house in the countryside with their mother. The house is near railroad tracks, and their adventures with the trains and a particular Old Gentleman who rides them help to improve their situation and prove their father’s innocence. By E. Nesbit.
• The Wind in the Willows (1908) - The adventures of talking animals who act like humans: Toad, Mole, Ratty, and Badger. By Kenneth Grahame.

Children's book series that were being published during the 1900s:

• The Color Fairy Books (1889-1910) - A series of collections of classic fairy tales. Each of the books in this series has a color in its title, like The Red Fairy Book, The Blue Fairy Book, etc. By Andrew Lang.
• The Rover Boys (1899-1926) - The first of the Stratemeyer Syndicate series. Three brothers, Tom, Sam, and Dick Rover, have adventures and solve mysteries while attending a military boarding school. (I've only read two books in this series, and I want to warn others about racist language and situations.)
• Dandelion Cottage Series (1904-1921) - A group of girls in the early 1900s are allowed to use a real cottage as their playhouse, and it brings them into contact with interesting people.
• The Bobbsey Twins - This Stratemeyer Syndicate series began in 1904. Two pairs of fraternal twins have adventures and solve mysteries. Early books were more adventure/general fiction than mystery, but the series evolved over time.
• Anne of Green Gables series - The series began in 1908. An aging brother and sister take in a red-headed orphan girl, sent to them by mistake when they requested a boy to help them with farm work. They decide to keep the girl, and she changes their lives with her lively imagination.

Resources

Children's Literature of the 1900s

These sites have lists of children's books that were published in the 1900s.

Forgotten Books and Stories: Books from the 1900s.

The 1900s page from my website/blog where I do reviews of children's books. I include some historical information with the pages for different decades, some of which is duplicated here.

Goodreads — Best Children’s Books, 1900-1920

A list of 94 books from Goodreads of books published from 1900 to 1920. The books are listed individually, not sorted by genre or series. They are also not listed chronologically. Click on individual titles to read descriptions and reader reviews.

Classic Children’s Books By The Decade: 1900s

A list of 10 recommended books from this decade with descriptions.