Fitter Families for Future Firesides”
Florence Sherbon and Popular Eugenics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11664808 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura L Lovett (University of Massachusetts Amherst, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 69-85 |
| Publication date | 2007-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Public Historian (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0272-3433 • E-ISSN: 1533-8576 |
| Publisher | University of California Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1525/tph.2007.29.3.69 |
| PMID | 18175452 |
| OpenAlex | W1978335404 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
In the 1920s, eugenicists adapted public health contests to create "Fitter Family for Future Firesides" contests. Designed by Mary T. Watts and Dr. Florence Sherbon, these contests were deliberately staged at agricultural fairs. These contests encouraged families to re-imagine their histories as pedigrees subject to scientific analysis and control, while appealing to a deeply rooted sense of nostalgia for the rural family as the nation became increasingly urban, as rural children left farms, and as the culture of the Roaring Twenties challenged "traditional values". As such, the fitter family contests fused nostalgia for the farm family with a modernist promise of scientific control
Biology · Control (management · Economics · Eugenics · Genealogy · Library science · Management · Pedigree chart · Political science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · History of Medicine and Tropical Health · Law · Medical History and Research
| Citations per year | 0.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2024 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |