A Home of Another Kind

A historical account of the Chicago Nursery and Half-Orphan Asylum from 1860 through 1984, when it became a full-time research institute. Founded by a group of wealthy volunteers, the asylum was a Protestant institution for Protestant children - one of many around the country designed as places where single parents could leave their children if they were temporarily unable to care for them. But the asylum, which later became known as Chapin Hall, changed dramatically over the years as it tried to respond to changing policies, priorities, regulations and theories concerning child welfare. The author offers a portrait of how these changes affected the day-to-day realities of group living. How did the kind of care given to the children change? What did the staff and management hope to accomplish? How did they define "family"? Who were the children who lived in the asylum? What brought them there? What were their needs? How did outside forces change what went on inside Chapin Hall? Few realize that almost all children living in 19th-century orphanages had at least one living parent. The austere living conditions so characteristic of the orphanage were prompted as much by health concerns as by strict Victorian morals.