|
|
Article: White House Conferences on Children
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
White House Conferences on Children
The first White House Conference on Children, called in 1909 by President Theodore Roosevelt, was a watershed event in the history of American child welfare. Roosevelt charged the conference to consider the care of dependentchildren
–
that is, children who depended for support on any person or institution other than their parents or other relatives
–
and to make recommendations regarding them.
In the nineteenth century, dependent children were cared for primarily in orphanages. Before the U.S. Civil War, orphanages were small, located in towns rather than rural settings, and run almost invariably by women. A typical Protestant orphanage was ...