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Acknowledgments I first came across the Society for Maternal Charity when I was working on my dissertation, the story of a family in eighteenth-century Bordeaux. Fascinated by the documents, I vowed to come back to them. I got my first chance in 1995 when, thanks to a summer stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities, I was able to spend two months researching in Bordeaux and Marseille. I was forced to put the Society for Maternal Charity aside for the next several years while I turned my dissertation into my first book, helped to edit a volume of essays, gave birth to my second child, and made tenure. It was during my first sabbatical, in 1999–2000, that I was able to turn my attention fully to maternal societies once again, deciding to expand my study to encompass the seven cities it now includes. A book project requires the assistance of many people and institutions. I was very lucky to work with the University of Illinois Press. Since the beginning , Laurie Matheson has been supportive and encouraging, the ideal editor; the comments of the readers were crucial in making this a stronger book. I am also grateful for the assistance of project editor Jennifer Clark and copyeditor Angela Buckley. In addition to the NEH grant that launched this study, I received a Mellon Foreign Area Fellowship from the Library of Congress in 1999–2000, which allowed me to work there during my sabbatical . My place of employment, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, helped to fund research trips with Faculty Development Grants in 1995, 1999, 2004, and 2005. In 2002 I received a fellowship to attend an NEH Summer Seminar on Motherhood and the Nation-State at Stanford University, organized by Karen M. Offen and Marilyn J. Boxer. The seminar was a fabulous experience that offered me new ways to think about the relationship between mothers x Acknowledgments and the state; both Karen and Marilyn have remained mentors and valued friends and helped immeasurably with this project. Chapter 4 of this book appeared in an earlier form as “In the Public Interest: Charitable Association, The State, and the Status of Utilité Publique in Nineteenth-Century France,” in Law and History Review 25:2 (Summer 2007). I have also drawn on material published in two earlier articles: “Maternal Societies in France: Private Charity before the Welfare State,” Journal of Women’s History 17:1 (Spring 2005); and “Constructing Mothers and Families: The Society for Maternal Charity of Bordeaux, 1805–1860,” French Historical Studies 22 (Winter 1999). Working in France is always a pleasure. In Paris, the personnel at the Archives Nationales, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and especially the Archives de l’Assistance Publique were unfailingly professional and helpful. In Bordeaux, a city I knew well, colleagues at the Archives Départementales de la Gironde, Archives Municipales, and Bibliothèque Municipale were a joy; I was thrilled to work with my old friends Jean-Pierre Bériac and Jean-Paul Avisseau once again, and the woman in charge of microfilm at the Archives Départementales was amazingly helpful and generous. In Marseille, Claude and Claude Bayle (husband and wife) kindly showed me around the city and oriented me at the Archives Départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône, the Archives Municipales, and the Bibliothèque Municipale. In Rouen I was able to locate the necessary documents in a very quick trip to the Archives Départementales de la SeineMaritime ; the staff efficiently photocopied large numbers of documents, and my colleague Jeff Horn (who also shared a number of citations he came across in his own research) generously retrieved them for me. My trip to Limoges, where I worked at the Archives Départementales de la Haute-Vienne and the Bibliothèque Municipale, was a delight, as Marie-Ange Huon and Jonathan Bass opened their home to me. I arrived at Lyon and Dijon relatively late in this project, but I fell in love with both cities. The staff of the Archives Départementales du Rhône politely looked the other way as I spent several afternoons making photocopies; the Archives Municipales and Bibliothèque Municipale were equally obliging. I also have happy memories of the Archives Départementales de la Côte-d’Or, with its plaque commemorating Mozart’s appearance there, and the Bibliothèque Municipale of Dijon. Friends and colleagues have generously shared their time and expertise to read parts of this book, to offer suggestions, and to...

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