Breastfeeding In Rewind

I am so excited this morning because I learned something brand new about American history!

As I have been searching through countless photographs on the Library of Congress Web site I keep coming across unfamiliar late nineteenth, early twentieth century photo cards with two of the exact image right beside each other. I knew absolutely nothing about them until today.

They’re called stereographs and they were the precursor to the modern day View Master. Here’s one called “Baby’s Happy Hour” (1) from 1898.

It was photographed and sold by Griffith & Griffith, an early photography company out of Philadelphia. Families would pop their cards into the stereoscope and get a 3-D version of the image. It was great entertainment then, but Constance B. Schultz, a history professor at the University of South Carolina, teaches that these stereographs painted a very narrow view of women. (Quelle surprise!)

“Stereographs were used as a widespread vehicle to transport cultural and domestic ideas. They reflected and reinforced both positive and negative stereotypes about the roles and purposes of women.”

Schultz adds the stereographs were intended to either depict women as matronly (above) or comical in nature like this one called “A Chip Off the Old Block” (2) which shows a man and baby drinking from the bottle. It was sold by the Standard Scenic Company in 1906.

1. Copyright: Griffith & Griffith
2. Copyright: Standard Scenic Co.

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!

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

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.

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.

These photos have absolutely nothing to do with breastfeeding, but I could not sleep without sharing them with you. What’s funny is I had no idea that breast augmentation and face injections weren’t new. See for yourself.

1. Young woman getting “laugh” wrinkles around mouth smoothed out. Bel Air, CA, US 1961 © Time Inc.

2. Woman getting injection which builds up fatty tissue under skin to get rid of wrinkles. Bel Air, CA, US 1961 © Time Inc.

3. Young woman showing results after plastic surgery to enhance size of her breasts. Bel Air, CA, US 1961 © Time Inc.