Legend has it that the campaign to save abused children in New York was driven by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The truth is more complicated.

The Biden administration’s proposed “child allowances” draw on the feminist thought of Crystal Eastman, who advocated “motherhood endowments” 100 years ago.

Many 18th-century households included not only relatives and slaves, but also indentured servants, people sold into bondage for a specified length of time.

Modern-day DNA research is beginning to unlock longstanding mysteries regarding orphans.

The debate over welfare goes back surprisingly far.

Little Orphan Annie is the latest in a sequence of pop culture foundlings, but America’s orphans of the Great Depression weren’t endearing at all.

Brandeis University researcher Hilda Kahne argued for a more thoughtful approach to part-time jobs in a 1994 issue of Social Service Review