Talk: “Kingdoms of Babes,” Home Nurseries in Turn-of-the-Century America

73 South College Street,Akron OH 44325

27 October, 2022

Description

Directions for constructing and setting up home nurseries were a common feature of child-rearing and domestic medicine manuals, during the mid-to late 19th and early 20th centuries. Physicians and other child-rearing authorities offered detailed directions on location, design, decoration, the materials, and management of nurseries. The notion that the house had both a physiological and psychological impact on the child urged mothers to design the nursery in appropriate ways under the aegis of medical experts. For the medical community and growing readership of white, middle-class mothers and mothers-to-be in Victorian and early Progressive America, domestic architecture had a prescriptive power; the configurations of the home nursery would lead to the configurations of the infant, and in turn, the “civilized” race, and nation. In this talk, Dr. Elisabeth M. Yang will discuss how the home nursery itself was medicalized and transformed into a sanctified space of science, technology, religion, and politics, as physicians and child-rearing authorities proscribed objects as implements of “moralizing” and “normalizing” the infant. She will explore what the material world of babies—the nursery and its objects—reveals to us about their moral nature and agency, suggesting an intimate link between the physical topology of babyhood and the moral ontology of babies. The talk will address theoretical entanglements between the material and moral in the making of the idealized “healthy and happy” American baby in the home nursery which emerged as an ideological concourse of various babyhoods—mechanistic, plant-like, savage, tyrannical, innocent, and patriotic. About Dr. Elisabeth M. Yang Dr. Yang is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Kilachand Honors College of Boston University. She holds a Ph.D. in Childhood Studies from Rutgers University, an MA in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, an MA in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics, and a BA in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she draws from the history and philosophy of science and medicine, sociology, theology, childhood studies, and material culture. Previously, she worked in collaboration with the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania on an NEH-funded digital humanities project aimed to unearth and digitize the underrepresented voices of individuals and communities living in Philadelphia during the American Revolution. Currently, Dr. Yang is working on her first book, Constructing Moral Babies, concerning the historical and philosophical constructions of moral babies in American medical and pedagogical discourses during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Health & SafetyVisit our health and safety page for up-to-date information on the Cummings Center's safety protocols: https://uakron.edu/chp/museum/covid-19-precautions Please stay home if you do not feel well, have been diagnosed with COVID-19, or had direct contact with an individual diagnosed with or suspected to have COVID-19. AccessibilityA wheelchair accessible ramp is located on the northeast side of the building, near the main entrance. An interior elevator provides access to the 3rd floor classrooms. A wheelchair is available to loan for those visiting. Please contact us ahead of time with any accessibility requirements so we can work together to make your visit comfortable. For more information, see our accessibility page: https://uakron.edu/chp/about-us/accessibility. LocationFor this event we will be in the classrooms on the 3rd floor of the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology. The street address is 73 S. College Street Akron, Ohio 44325-4302 (on the corner of Mill and College Streets). TransitLocal bus service is provided by Akron Metro. Stops closest to the Cummings Center are at Mill & College; E. Market & College; and Main & E. Bowery St. Further route details are available from Akron Metro. For University of Akron students, faculty, and staff, the Roo Express stops at the nearby College St. Circle and at Fir Hill Towers. ParkingA small parking lot is adjacent to the Cummings Center, on College St. There are also parking meters located along College St. or visitor parking available in Lot 30 (corner of College and Market streets). UA staff, faculty, and student parking is available in Lot 40, off Mill St. About the Cummings CenterThe Drs. Nicholas & Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology (CCHP) cares for, provides access to, and interprets the historical record of psychology and related human sciences. In addition to the Institute, the Center is the home to the Archives of the History of American Psychology (AHAP) and the National Museum of Psychology (NMP). Visit https://uakron.edu/chp/