American Childhoods

Dear Dr. Pflieger:

This is fascinating! As a fashion historian, I was curious to see how fashion was viewed by teens, and found some really interesting results. In The Juvenile Port-Folio, I found a tale of a mother who was more concerned with fashion over religion, which led to her daughter's death by consumption after catching a cold (and we now know these two aren't actually related).

There's definitely enough material here for me to expand and start my next research project. And, I already have. Thanks for sharing!

-Alexandra Thelin
PhD Student in History Culture
Drew University

Dear All,

This is a fascinating post. I found myself wondering how the young editors mentioned here covered politics, if at all, especially since some of the publications coincide with the sectional crisis / Civil War / Reconstruction. Abolitionists certainly wrote and published for adolescent readers, I wonder how many of their readers tried their hands at publishing. 

Best wishes, 

David Prior
Assistant Professor of History
University of New Mexico

Dr. Pflieger, Thank you for sharing!
This may also be of interest to our colleagues over at H-Childhood ( https://networks.h-net.org/h-childhood ) and The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing ( http://www.sharpweb.org/main/sharp-l/ ).

Most early American periodicals for children were edited and published by adults, but some notable ones were produced by teenagers.  The publications won’t be remembered for the quality of the contents, but what they lacked in quality, the editors more than made up for in enthusiasm.

Some periodicals were written or edited by the young, but overseen by adults. The Juvenile Key (1830-1837) was famously printed by Zeruiah-Juan Griffin, Joseph Warren Griffin, and George Griffin, but edited by their father, publisher Joseph Griffin.  Boys at the Orphans’ Home in Germantown, Pennsylvania, set the

This is a useful introduction, but it blurs differences in gender imaging and purposes between the early Girl Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls and understates the early animosity of top BSA leadership toward Girl Scouting. Whether memories of these conflicts endure today is of course an open question. The Boy Scouts of America’s longtime Chief Scout Executive James West, along with other BSA leaders, helped Luther Gulick and Charlotte Gulick to design Camp Fire Girls so as to fill a social niche analogous to Boy Scouting while averting any suggestion that these were imitation Boy Scouts. Himself

To augment this, you might explore the history of the Baden-Powell Service Association (BPSA), which has always been coed and inclusive since its founding in 2006 in the US. Currently the organization is wrestling with how to maintain its stance as "traditional" scouting based on Baden-Powell's original writings while also maintaining its mission to be coed at all levels, since of course B-P focused his efforts on boys, as well as taking to task the issues of cultural appropriation in the "Indian lore" etc.

On October 11, 2017, the Boy Scouts of America announced they would begin accepting girls in their ranks.  The landmark decision came on the heels of previous decisions to reverse longstanding policies on barring gay scouts, 2013, and gay scout leaders, 2014.  All together, the BSA promoted these policy shifts as signs that the organization was evolving, becoming more diverse and inclusive, while continuing to adhere to their own clear-eyed mission of developing all American youth into the right kinds of American citizens.  Well, maybe not all—Atheist children, for instance, remain out of luck

Thanks for these comments.

Indeed, Ellen, it seems to be a very nostalgic view of children at Christmas: harkening back to some pre-consumerist American Christmas celebration. Like many nostalgic views of childhood, it looks back to a time that may not have existed, right? It seems like a family centric Christmas only came into common practice right alongside a consumerist Christmas. Family-centric, non-consumerist Christmas celebrations are less throwbacks and more a turning away from historical trend and current practice.

I used to have a box full of Youth’s Companion but I gave it away. Maybe

An intriguing article. From your description, it seems that Highlights wants to push a non-consumerist and pro-family vision of Christmas. 19th and early 20th century magazines were always pushing hand-crafted gifts (even as their ads promoted consumer goods). It almost sounds like a conscious throwback to some ideal of family-centric, non-consumer Christmas, though the absence of both Santa Claus and Jesus would be less common in earlier pubs. I wonder how the recent Highlights would compare with early children's magazines such as The Youth's Companion.

Ah hah, those Highlights magazines in doctor's offices, school libraries, and everyplace with a children's focus do have an angle or have had many different angles over the years. Your historical analysis of the magazine's picture game about what's wrong in a picture and how it has changed from different publication years was good to think about. It takes so much time and research to see patterns in any body of work and you're doing it. It helped to see the different personal, consumer, and academic perspectives, too. This world of children's consumerism... it really has me thinking about the