Justice, Not Pity: Julia Lathrop, First Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau

About

Julia Lathrop was an American social worker at the turn of the 20th century, a pioneer in the field of child welfare who investigated child labor, studied infant mortality and pushed for separate courts for juveniles. Her career and significance as a political force is the subject of a lecture by Cecelia Tichi, holder of the Chair of Modern Culture in the John W. Kluge Center. According to Tichi, "No Washington notables were on hand to greet Julia Lathrop when she arrived at Union Station in the spring of 1912 to be sworn in as chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau. Lathrop, a well-groomed, Gilded Age lady from the Midwest, had detested politics all her life. Ironically, she was about to become a political force on the national scene and a figure at the cutting edge of momentous change in federal policy." Lathrop faced many challenges when she assumed the helm of the Children's Bureau. Tichi said, "Congress was wary and watchful for missteps, and opponents of the new bureau were already massing, furious at governmental meddling in family life. Lathrop's credentials were no guarantee of success, and the first year's bureau budget was tiny. If she failed, her name would be synonymous with governmental waste and female incompetence. Worse, the children of the United States, the very future of the country, would needlessly suffer and die."

Archive

Library of Congress, in Library of Congress: talks and concerts

Licence or status

Rights statement at the Library of Congress, as the Library of Congress states it.

Credit

Library of Congress

Language

English

Country

United States

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed