US Children's Bureau, "Our Children" (1919) Reel 1 of 2

An educational silent film produced in 1919 for the US Children's Bureau, the first federal agency to focus specifically on the wellbeing of mothers and children. Displays the voluntary health-promotion efforts of the women of Gadsden, Alabama, including participation in the first nationwide study of children's heights and weights, a birth-registration drive, and a public health clinic.

Source: Film 102.4, Moving Pictures Division, NARA, College Park, Maryland. This film, produced for a United States government agency over 90 years ago, is not under copyright.

For more information on the Children's Bureau, see Kriste Lindemeyer, "A Right to Childhood": The U.S. Children's Bureau and Child Welfare, 1912-46 (University of Illinois Press, 1997), and Molly Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work: Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890-1930 (University of Illinois Press, 1995).

Reel 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dWpOG2dLZY

Category:

Education

Tags:

• women
• children
• babies
• health
• alabama
• 1919
• children's year
• silent
• historical
• history
• mothers