Description
Book SynopsisAn interdisciplinary study of the State Home and School for Dependent and Neglected Children, Rhode Island's state custodial institution for children from 1885 to 1979.
Trade ReviewThis is an intriguing case study and the volume includes considerable detail about the archaeological remains and the history of the institution. * Current World Archaeology *
Morenon (anthropology, Rhode Island College) uses historical archaeology to examine the Rhode Island State Home and School, a late-19th- and 20th-century state institution that housed children whose parents were unable to care for them. The author situates the State Home in its historical and cultural contexts as a Gilded Age response to social changes resulting from urbanization and industrialization. He weaves together various strands, including archaeological data, architecture, life histories, and institutional records to highlight the importance of the site and the relevance of studying relatively recent institutions. Building on a long tradition of research in historical archaeology, the volume sheds new light on those who have been forgotten, focusing on the lives of children, a significant population that rarely sees careful archaeological study. Theoretically informed and methodologically sound, Morenon's study highlights the importance of an archaeological approach for understanding the recent past. Poignant and powerful, this is an excellent contribution to the archaeology of institutional life and an important example of the scholarship of civic engagement and public responsibility. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; graduate students; professionals. * CHOICE *
Table of Contents1: Forgotten Childhoods 2: Children Lost and Found 3: Child Narratives in Unexamined Records 4: Recording Archaeological Details and Creating New Child Narratives 5: Collaborating 6: Do Archaeologists Overlook Children? 7: Dependent Children in Context 8: Neglected Children as Civic Responsibility 9: From Victorian Landscapes to a Child’s Treatment Center 10: Unearthing Cultural Details 11: Play and Community Relations 12: Bureaucracies, Power, and Punishment 13: Why Don’t I Know This? Appendix A: State Home and School Project Timeline (2001–2010) Appendix B: Rhode Island State Home and School/O’Rourke Children’s Center: Oral History Project Appendix C: POST-2002 ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD PROTOCOL
