Parenthood in Early Twentieth-Century America Project (PETCAP), 1900-1944

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Summary

The purpose of this data collection was to provide information on parenting in general and on fathers' roles in particular in the early part of the twentieth century in the United States. The colle...

The purpose of this data collection was to provide information on parenting in general and on fathers' roles in particular in the early part of the twentieth century in the United States. The collection comprises transcriptions of original handwritten and published materials relating to infant and child care dating from the turn of the century into World War II. There are three types of data in the collection: (1) popular magazine articles, (2) letters to educator and author Angelo Patri (1876-1965) and his replies, and (3) letters to the United States Children's Bureau, along with the Bureau's replies. The popular magazine data files include transcriptions of original magazine articles indexed under the READER'S GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE categories of "father," "mother," and "parent," published between 1900 and 1942. In addition to the text of the articles, other information contained in each data file includes the author of the article, index classification (father, mother, or parent), year the article was published, magazine name and volume number, and gender of the article's author. The Children's Bureau data include advice-seeking letters from fathers and mothers and the Bureau's replies, written between 1915 and 1944. Beyond the actual text of the letters, other information includes the initials and title of the letter's author, location of the letter within the National Archives (box number), Bureau subject classification codes for the box that the letter came from, time period covered by the letters in the box, Bureau subject classification code(s) for each letter, date of the letter, return address (city and state), and gender of the letter's author. Also included are the name of the Children's Bureau staff member who wrote the reply, the date of the reply, and the text of the reply itself. The Angelo Patri data include the text of advice-seeking letters from both fathers and mothers and Patri's replies to them, as well as Patri's newspaper columns and scripts from his radio show. The Patri letters were primarily written between 1924 and 1939. Other information in each Patri data file includes the location of the document in the Library of Congress (box number and date), date of the letter, return address (city and state), gender of the author of the letter, and date of the reply.Cf: http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06876.v2

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