Abandoned: Foundlings in Nineteenth-Century New York City

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I would like to thank the people who welcomed me in from their doorsteps, both literally and figuratively, during the many years that I worked on this book. Foremost among them is Gerald Markowitz , who nurtured the book from beginning to end. I appreciate his wisdom and kindness. Thomas Kessner also played an important role; I appreciate his close reading and value the many conversations we had over the years. Other faculty members of the history department at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York also read and commented on this book at various stages. They include Bonnie Anderson, Ann Fabian, Margaret King, David Nasaw, and Barbara Welter. I am grateful to them for their enthusiasm and guidance. At New York University Press I am also grateful to Deborah Gershenowitz, Salwa Jabado, Despina Papazoglou Gimbel, and the anonymous readers. I am also grateful to the colleagues who listened to and commented on portions of this work that I delivered at conferences over the years. These include the Conference on New York State History, the European Social Science History Conference, the Gotham History Conference at the Gotham Center for New York City History, the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association conference, and the Society for the History of Children and Youth’s biennial meeting. At different stages of this project I was assisted by several awards: the Nina E. Fortin Memorial Fund Dissertation Proposal Award of the Women’s Studies Certificate Program of the CUNY Graduate Center, a dissertation fellowship from the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women, The Dixon Ryan Fox Manuscript Prize of the New York State Historical Association, and the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Postdoctoral Fellowship of the New-York Historical Society. These awards provided funds, encouragement, and the essential gift of time. I would like xi to express my gratitude to the donors and administrators of these awards for their great generosity to me. New York City’s libraries and archives are among the city’s great treasures; I could not have written this book without them. I would like to thank the staff of the New York Public Library, who retrieved innumerable books, manuscripts, and boxes of microfilm for me; Ken Cobb and Leonora Gidlund of the Municipal Archives, who have performed essential work in preserving and making available the records that document New York City’s history; the Municipal Reference and Research Library, particularly Devra Zetlin, now retired; Adele Lerner, also retired , formerly the archivist of the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center Archives, and her successor, James Gehrlich; the New-York Historical Society library; Sister Rita King, archivist of the Sisters of Charity Archives at Mount St. Vincent College; Sister Marilda Joseph, archivist at the New York Foundling Hospital; the New York Academy of Medicine library; and the libraries of Hunter College, Lehman College, New York University, the New School, and Columbia University. I am especially grateful to James Folts of the New York State Library, and Peter Lee and Kay Mackey of the library of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, for guiding me through the complexities of nineteenthcentury law. Other friends, colleagues, and family members provided help and encouragement during the years it took to write this book. They include G. David Brumberg, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Laura Chmielewski, Vincent DiGirolamo, Rebecca Jacobs, Barbara and Martin Miller, Phil Pappas , Madeline Rogers, Iris Towers, Jack Wertheimer, my colleagues at Hunter College, and my friends at the Alderbrook Pool. I would also like to thank the many friends who over the years pointed out to me the presence of innumerable foundlings in novels, movies, cartoons, and myths. In everything I do I remember my brother, Paul Miller. I was lucky to have a wonderful aunt, Estelle Miller. She was a great reader and she devoted herself to making me one too. This book is dedicated to her with love and gratitude. xii | Acknowledgments ...