Le Petit Ramoneur (The Little Chimney Sweep) by Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1883

Chimney Sweeps and the Turn Against Child Labor

The slowly expanding protections of “climbing boys” reveal the changing attitudes to child labor in Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Boy genius Robert Strom is interviewed by host Hal March from the television series 'The $64,000 Question', 1955.

The Invention of the Gifted Child

The National Defense Education Act of 1958 meshed with white anxiety about the desegregation of schools.
Barbie in her various incarnations

Teaching Barbie: Scholarly Readings to Inspire Classroom Discussion

Barbie is having a(nother) moment. Researchers have been studying the famous doll for years.
Photograph: Twins Michael and Mary Kerby fail to convey any enthusiasm upon winning a trophy in a Baby Show at Ruislip, Middlesex, May 1934

Darling or Degrading? Baby Shows in the Nineteenth Century

A stunningly popular form of entertainment, baby pageants promoted the cult of domesticity, showcased maternal pride, and opened a path to fame and wealth.
The Body Shop and ECPAT campaign at The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on March 29, 2012 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Creating a Safety Net: CST in International Law

Robust international partnership models that build capacity and trust can help fight child sex tourism and commercial sexual exploitation of children.
A young Native American boy learns the Eagle Dance in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, 1952

Understanding the Indian Child Welfare Act

The ICWA wasn’t implemented perfectly, but it reversed a centuries-old pattern of removing Native children from their families and their tribes.
Mary Ellen Wilson

Origins of Child Protection

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.
Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/40690/40690-h/40690-h.htm

Walking Streetlamps for Hire in Seventeenth-Century London

Much in the same way we hail cabs in cities today, a medieval Londoner could hail a torch-bearer (a link-boy) to light their way home from a night on the town.
A child being taught how to shoot a gun by his father

American as Apple Pie

How marketing made guns a fundamental element of contemporary boyhood.
A scene at the police head-quarters, Mulberry Street, New York

Urchins of New York and Elsewhere

Remembering the Sky Parlor for lost children and the public’s fascination with those who went astray.