“If They Smile He Will Flourish”: Mothers, Doctors, and Nineteenth-Century Children’s Literature

Within the appropriate boundaries of what constituted middle-class femininity, the concept of republican motherhood allowed middle-class mothers to expand their role in civil society. Domestic literacy and health management emerged as significant ways to contribute to their nation. While mothers read to their children as part of their civic duty, they could peruse their children’s health. Championed as the first-line in the prevention of illness, mothers made important medical choices that helped shaped medical practice during a transitional period in American medicine. Authors recognized the potential to influence mothers’ medical choices through children’s literature, thus children’s stories provide evidence of the importance of mothers as consumers of medical products and services.