Figure 1.--Here is an image of Indiana Orphans taken outside the Gibson County state Orphanage about 1918--six boys and a girl. They look about 8-10 years old. At an earlier period, orphans who became wards of the state had been apprenticed to work on farms. Now they lived in a state run institution supported by local taxes.

Orphanages were established througout the United States in the late 19th centutry. We have collected some information about specific American orphanages in various parts of cthe country.. Here we have some details, but in other instances have little more than an image. Orphanages were sponsored by both state officials and religious authorities.

Indiana Orphanage (1918)

Here is an image of Indiana Orphans taken outside the Gibson County state Orphanage about 1918--six boys and a girl (figure 1). The children look about 8-10 years old. At an earlier period, orphans who became wards of the state had been apprenticed to work on farms. Now they lived in a state run institution supported by local taxes. The children were cared for by the couple you can see standing behind them. The boys are nicely dressed for their official photograph, wearing white shirts, above-the-knee knickers, and long black stockings. One boy wears a floppy bow tie. They all wear hightop shoes.

New York Catholic Orphanage (1930s-40s)

I was raised in an abusive Catholic orphanage. The story of which I am now writing. I was born in 1933. As a younger boy in the 1930's and 40's we wore short pants with long wool stockings. The stockings were always dark and held up with garters or with garter vests. I wore short pants and the stockings until around age 11. After that, believe it or not, we graduated into knickers which was worn up to the 6th grade. Knickers had rather much gone out of fashion, but we continued wearing them anyway. Long pants came in when we were in 7th and 8th grades, by which time, I actually missed wearing short pants. The problem with wearing short pants is that we got teased by the older boys who were in long pants. I think shorts for males didn't really come into fashion until the early 50's, and then the army started the troops in shorts during the summer around 1955. If I recall, this was shortlived. As a very young boy, I wet the bed frequently, and the nuns made me to wear a dress as punishment, and to cure me of bedwetting, which, incidentally, it never did. I have since discovered that the Sears catologs of the 1920's actually showed dresses for boys up to age 5, or so. This probably explains why I was forced into a dress, but of course it was no longer common to outfit boys in dresses by the 1930s and especailly the 40s. While I was ambarrassed at this age, I actually began to wonder why, around age 8, why boys didn't wear dresses just as the girls did. There was no good answer given.

New York Orphange: Mt. Loretto

I was cared for at the Mt. Loretto orphanage/chilren's home in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Mt. Loretto cared for children from 4-18 years of age. We were sent their by family courts or local churches. We wore knickers, f I rember correctly without kneesocks. When the knickers were phased out we wore cordoroys. I remember that we souned like a hor of locusts in our new cords when we marched to school and to the cafeteria.

Tennessee: Vine Street Orphanage

Here we see the children at the Vine Street Orphanage in Chattanooga, Tennessee probably during the 1930s. The photograph is undated, but we would guess was taken in the 1930s or early 40s. The children all have their Easter baskets. I am guessing that they are about to have an Easter egg hunt. We know nothing about the orphanage at this time. Interestingly the children are all dressed quite differently. Orphanges like schools in Tennessee and other southern states were racially segregated.

Unknown State: Second grader

A second grader recalls how the clothes were issued every morning and how the other children at school would tease the orphans about their ragged or ill-fitting clohing. Based on Roger Dean Kiser, Sr.'s heartrending book, Orphan.

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Created: 6:13 PM 10/24/2004
Last update: 7:24 PM 9/3/2006