May 20th, 2009
I thought these two ads were very interesting. Instead of being ads for formula, they are ads for a nursing mother supplement. Both of these ads ran in the New York Times. The first ad advertises a supplement for nursing moms, but the supplement can also be given to babies who were fed cow’s milk. It ran on October 16, 1918. The second ad ran on January 3, 1919.
Interesting stuff!
It’s fascinating how times have changed greatly, but then again, they really haven’t changed that much at all. Imperial Granum, an unsweetened food, was intended to be taken as a supplement for babies who were fed formula and it was also intended for nursing mothers to increase their milk supply and nutritional quality. I’m pretty sure it was probably snake oil, but it is fascinating to see how early companies were trying to persuade nursing mothers that their milk was not good enough for their babies. I wonder what it was made from. I think a Google search is calling. I’ll be back once I’ve found out what was in Imperial Granum.
Update About Imperial Granum (Found via the National Library of Medicine)
How is imperial granum prepared?
Two teaspoonfuls of the flour and six ounces of water. Cook ten minutes, and then add an equal quantity of milk and cook for five minutes longer.
Yuck!
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May 16th, 2009
I hope you’re having a great weekend! I thought this was interesting when I ran across it last night. It is a sheet music cover from 1855 called Barnum’s Baby Show Polka. Even though it is 1855 and most mothers breastfed, I thought it was interesting that this sheet music cover showed some of the mothers nursing. You can click the cover to see it up close.
Historic American Sheet Music, “Barnum’s Baby Show Polka”, Music #733, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
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May 13th, 2009
This photo is so interesting to me. Notice the mom breastfeeding at the table. Here’s the title of the photograph: 4:30 P.M. Mrs. Annie De Maritius, 46 Laight St., front, Nursing a dirty baby while she picks nuts. Was suffering with a sore throat. Rosie, 3 yrs. old hanging around. Conevieve, 6 yrs. old. Tessie, 6 yrs. old picks too. Make $1.50 to $2.00 a week. Husband on railroad works sometimes. Location: [New York, New York (State)]
There is so much going on in this photograph that I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about it thoroughly. This photograph was published in December 1911. It is amazing that the mother was able to work at home with her children, but the conditions don’t look very appealing or sanitary and clearly there are no child labor laws in place. At least the mother breastfed her children even when milk stations were readily available in New York where women could get milk for their babies.
I found a New York Times article from July 12, 1912 (pdf) that spoke about the milk stations and how effective they were at lowering infant mortality. In other words, the milk industry during that time pushed milk formula on mothers without realizing that milk was killing babies because it could not be properly sterilized. To remedy that instead of the city doing a massive breastfeeding outreach they decided to open up 88 New York City milk stations in the summer of 1912 to give mothers fresh milk. Judging from the photograph, every mother did not use the milk stations. Milk stations were one of the reasons mothers abandoned breastfeeding early in the twentieth century.
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May 11th, 2009
I am always amazed by the pictures I find of mothers in the 1930s and 40s who breastfed; I’m obsessed with them, really. Although formula was readily available then, poor farming mothers most always breastfed their babies as opposed to feeding them in a way that was expensive and I hazard to say…unnatural.
Here’s a mother breastfeeding her daughter under the trees in Wagoner County, Oklahoma. The picture was taken in June 1939. This is a wife and child of an itinerant cane furniture maker and agricultural day laborer.
One satisfied baby.
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May 11th, 2009
When I find historic photos of mothers I often want to find out more about the women who are in them. I guess it’s the history buff in me that absolutely cannot shut off. When I found this photo two things immediately struck me: 1) I wonder if she breastfed her baby and 2) I wonder why she looks so sad. Although I couldn’t figure out if she breastfed or not (surprisingly sometimes I do find clues that can answer that question) I did find out why she was so sad.
The woman in the photo is named Mrs. Ocey Snead and was photographed by a famous photographer, George Grantham Bain and is housed in the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress. The title of the photo is: Mrs. Ocey Snead, in bed, baby in arms.
A quick Google search about Mrs. Ocey Snead revealed some very disturbing information about this woman. She was killed by her two sisters for a $32,000 life insurance policy in 1909. Now I know why she looked so sullen and sad even though she just had a baby. She had been treated very poorly up until this point and her baby was taken from her and given to an orphanage. The baby’s whereabouts were not known.
Read more about Mrs. Ocey Snead on Wikipedia. The New York Times ran an entire article about her in 1968 and several articles about her death ran in the New York Times between 1909 – 1910.
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I thought these two ads were very interesting. Instead of being ads for formula, they are ads for a nursing mother supplement. Both of these ads ran in the New York Times. The first ad advertises a supplement for nursing moms, but the supplement can also be given to babies who were fed cow’s milk. It ran on October 16, 1918. The second ad ran on January 3, 1919.
© 2009 Mothering Magazine