‘The many lessons which the care of some gentle, loveable animal would give’: animals, pets, and emotions in children’s welfare institutions, 1870–1920

ABSTRACT

This article uses two of the largest children’s residential welfare institutions operating in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a lens through which to explore the significance of animals and pets in the domestic and familial life of poor children. Using institutional periodicals, the article examines how institutions employed animals as pedagogical and politicised tools to shape children’s emotions and behaviours and to construct idealised notions about family life and childhood. Examination of institutional photographs and children’s correspondence highlights how animals featured in the everyday lives of institutionalised children, and the meanings that young people invested in their relationships with these animals. By examining working-class children’s engagement with animals, the article makes an important contribution to the rapidly expanding scholarship exploring inter-species relationships in nineteenth-century Britain, which has hitherto largely focused on middle-class pet keeping. Meanwhile, consideration of the use of pets as pedagogical tools for poor children in the institutional setting has further implications for and makes new contributions to the history of emotions and the history of the family, providing new insight into the social, emotional and material experiences of childhood in the out-of-home and alternative ‘family’ setting.

KEYWORDS:

• Welfare institutions
• animals
• pets
• childhood
• family life
• children’s care
• emotions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Barnardo’s Night and Day Volumes 21–22, December 1898, p. 87.

2. Barnardo’s, Frontispiece to The Children’s Treasury.

3. Barnardo’s, ‘The Children’s Treasury’, The Children’s Treasury, 22 December 1877, p. 616.

4. Barnardo’s, The Children’s Treasury, 1877, p. 286.

5. Barnardo’s, ‘Clara’s Tame Canary’, The Children’s Treasury 1875, p. 26.

6. Barnardo’s Bubbles Volume 6, p. 28.

7. Barnardo’s, ‘Pet Rabbits’, The Children’s Treasury, 1879, p.113.

8. Barnardo’s, ‘Pet Rabbits’, The Children’s Treasury, 1879, pp. 113–114.

9. Barnardo’s, The Whisperer, Ups and Downs Volume 8, p. 4.

10. Barnardo’s, Night and day Volumes 25–26, February 1902, p. 24.

11. Barnardo’s, ‘Puss – A Waif’, Bubbles Volume 6, 1896–1897, p. 102.

12. The Waifs and Strays Society (hereafter WSS), ‘The Rover League’, Brothers and Sisters, January 1905, p. 181.

13. WSS, ‘Letter from Rover’, Brothers and Sisters, March 1908, p. 84.

14. WSS, ‘Letter from “Paul”’, Brothers and Sisters, June 1908, p. 181.

15. WSS, ‘Letter from Niel and Whiskerandos’, Brothers and Sisters, November 1908, p. 343.

16. WSS, ‘The Rover League’, Brothers and Sisters, September 1907, p. 269.

17. WSS, ‘Thoughts, Facts, and Fancies’ Our Waifs and Strays, April 1888, p. 13.

18. Barnardo’s, Night and Day Volume 13, March 1889, p. 33.

19. Barnardo’s, Night and Day Volume 12, March 1888, p. 25.

20. ‘Personal Notes’, Night and Day Volume 14, November 1890, p. 170.

21. Barnardo’s, ‘Pigeons in the boys’ home’, The Children’s Treasury, 1875, p. 231.

22. Barnardo’s, The Children’s Treasury, 1879, p. 272.

23. Barnardo’s, ‘The pet of the village’, The Children’s Treasury, 1876, p. 230; ‘Rats and mice in Barnardo’s homes’, The Children’s Treasury, 1876, p. 188; ‘Goat at Stepney’, The Children’s Treasury, 1879, pp. 8–9.

24. WSS, ‘Practical Sympathy’, Our Waifs and Strays, May 1909, p. 110.

25. Barnardo’s, ‘Personal Notes’, Night and Day Volume 13, March 1889, p. 19.

26. WSS, ‘News and Views’, Our Waifs and Strays, December 1888, p. 9.

27. Barnardo’s, ‘Life on the Western Plains’, Ups and Downs Volume 6, April 1901, pp. 32–33.

28. Barnardo’s, ‘Life on the Western Plains’, Ups and Downs Volume 6, April 1901, pp. 32–33.

29. Barnardo’s, ‘Home Chat’, Ups and Downs Volume 5, April 1900, p. 11.

30. Barnardo’s, ‘Home Chat’, Ups and Downs Volume 3, July 1898, p. 179.

31. Barnardo’s, ‘Our Girls’, Ups and Downs Volume 5, October 1899, p. 63.

32. Barnardo’s, ‘Our Prize Competition’, Ups and Downs Volume 10, November 1904, p. 28.

33. WSS, case file 15019, Letter from Charles Roberts to Rev M Fowl, 13/3/1910.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the British Academy [pf170088].