“Never a Better Home”: Growing Up in American Orphanages, 1920–1970

For more than a century public discourse, at least in the Western world, has been practically unanimous in its condemnation of orphanages as institutions. Branded as cold, impersonal settings, characterized by rigid rules, regimentation, and lack of attention to children’s individual needs, orphanages have represented the antithesis of ideal, twentieth-century childrearing. Yet, the recollection of individuals who grew up in such institutions often tell a very different story. This article is based on approximately 140 oral history interviews conducted with men and women who spent at least part of their childhood in American orphanages in the Midwest between 1920 and 1970. It seeks to explore the memories of adults who grew up in these maligned institutions, not to determine what it was like to come of age in an orphanage, but to identify the conditions, structures, and relationships that individuals with generally positive memories found critical to their personal well-being when forced to grow up outside the family.