City in Sound; Chicago Foundling Home

This is Jack Angel, with city in sound, stories out of Chicago, city of the greatest movement on earth, city of all things, one among them, compassion. When an unmarried girl is in trouble and there is nowhere in the whole world to go, there is yet one place. This is the Chicago Foundlings Home, which can look on a mother and an infant as children of God and not improper wards of society. Mrs. Emily Crenshaw is the executive director of the Chicago Foundlings Home. Today, as through her life, deeply moved by the first moments of this institution. The Chicago Foundlings Home got its first strength in a tragic

situation that occurred back in 1868, shortly after the Civil War. When Dr. George E. Shipman, a prominent Chicago surgeon, was roused out of his bed when in blizzardy night, called by Mr. Pinkerton of the detective service to try to revive an infant found frozen on the wharf. The doctor being a religious and very humanitarian person, meditated and worried about this experience. For some time, he examined the statistics at the coroner's office and found that about a thousand such infants were brought to the office a year. He discussed this problem with church

groups, club women, doctors, everyone he could talk with in terms of how to meet this problem, how to care for the unwanted baby. Well, scanning your grouping of old clippings here, I gather that wasn't an easy thing for him to do, wasn't there a lot of opposition? There was a great deal of opposition. Well, Dr. Shipman kind of put himself out on a limb of his own making there and clung to it with all his strength. Do you find yourself in the same position in these modern times? Yes, I do because during my ten years at the Chicago Foundlings' home, I am very affected by that first inspiration of Dr. Shipman's and my feeling of the greatness of Dr. Shipman as a pioneer in child welfare. His philosophy then was the same as we have today, namely a woman in trouble and a baby in need,

needs love, affection and protection, and that is what we try to continue to do here at the home. Miss Crenshaw, this is an elegant old place, it's been standing, I understand, for eighty seven years now, but I understand you're about to move into newer quarters, is that true? Yes, our friends are helping us to build a fine new home in the medical center. Do you think that that'll still have the same atmosphere, the home -like atmosphere, the big home type camaraderie that this place has had? We hope so and are really sure that it will, if the philosophy of Dr. Shipman continues. I want to also add that carrying on with Dr. Shipman's philosophy, we have another great physician who is our current guardian in the name of Dr. Carl A.

Meyer, superintendant, medical superintendant of all the Cook County institutions. Fundamentally and principally, Mrs. Crenshaw, what is the basic thing you'll try to achieve if we can say that there is any one basic thing, maybe there are several, maybe there are a number of them, but how about the welfare of the mother, the girl? The basic philosophy here, which carries over again from Dr. Shipman, is to reconstruct a good wholesome home life for every woman who comes to live with us, if she needs to give her baby an adoption for her welfare and for the welfare of the baby, for that we have a well -baby nursery and an adoption program, as well as a follow -through for the girl when she leaves, which constitutes a rounded service for the unmarried mother? Mrs. Crenshaw, if you had it to do all over

again, would you be any other place than here? I believe not. I have worked in other agencies, welfare agencies, before I came here. This agency intrigues me from the standpoint of illustrating what I consider a pure charity in which the human welfare of the client is the main concern. In other words, the agency is client -centered. And the clients are these girls? The clients are the mothers and the babies. Okay, you're marrying you live here now, and you're going to be a mother. Right now you're here, and I'd be very interested to know how you like it. Well, I think it's a great place, because I came here and I was quite upset when I came here, and I wasn't ready for, well, I thought, sort of thought that this place would be very cool towards me and everything else.

And I'd have a hard time because the girls would be hard for anyone to accept me. But when I came, my views were changed quite a bit because everyone was so friendly. Now, they have case workers and different people to help you to adjust to the situation that you're in. And, well, it helped me with my problems, and right now I feel a lot different than I did when I first came in here. And I think it's going to help me a lot to leave this place and have a better view of life than I had before. Everybody's been very nice to you. Oh, yes, definitely. And you think it has a good deal of meaning? Well, you see, I wasn't in college, and for about a year and a half. And, well, this reminds me of a dormitory life. Kind of like a sorority of it. Yeah, it says a big mansion, type place. And do the girls get along pretty well together here? Oh, yes, yes. Well, no, you get any bunch of women together. There's bound to be some friction. Do you

find that there's any more here than there would be, or elsewhere? Or do you find that there's more understanding and inspiration? There is more understanding here. Well, no, obviously, this is quite an experience for you. How do you view this thing when you get out of here? Do you want to forget about it? Well, let's always have kind of a treasured place in your memory, or will there be kind of an attitude of banishment from your mind? How do you feel? No, I don't feel that it would be banished from my mind. I want to remember it as an experience, something that is helping me. And helping me very much to learn more about life and to grow up with an older understanding, even though I am not too old. How about your plans? You've had a lot of time to think about things here. Do you have any plans formulated for what you want to do when you get out? Yes, I do. I was in the business field before I came in here, and I'm planning to go back into it.

You're not going to go back to college? No. You're going to go back into business? Yes, I was a private secretary when I came in here. Things you're looking up? Oh, yes, definitely. Thank you, Mary. This is Desi. This is Desi. And your Naomi Abrams, a psychologist here. Well, how about Desi? Desi's a very bright boy. He is, huh? Now, we test these children in four areas to find out what they can do. We test them in their personal area, personal social behavior, their adaptive behavior, their motor coordination, and how they see their world. Well, how can you tell so much about a child who's only maybe a month or two old? Well, these have been standardized by gazelle. And this is called the gazelle developmental quotient. It's not an intelligence quotient per se. It's a developmental quotient in that they have no verbal behavior. But actually, the minute these children are born, you begin

your analysis and investigation, don't you? That's right. We're able to determine certain basic things and let me show you some of them. Now, when we pull Desi to a sitting position, how he holds his head, and at the age he is, we can determine approximately what his motor coordination is at this stage of his development. And we have norms that we can compare it to. You see how well Desi holds his head? Mm -hmm. He's only two months old. Oh, so bites your finger pretty well, too, Danny. He's beginning to search out. You see, the first thing children do is grasp with their hands and bring things to their mouth. And this is the way they learn. This is the first way they learn. Well, Desi doesn't seem to be enjoying his analysis at the moment here, Desi. You tell the man you're hungry. Tell him you're hungry and you want to eat. Desi does. Mm -hmm. All right. Come on, show him. Now, we have other ways of determining things. Let me get a rattle for him. All right. What

does a rattle do? Is this perception or something? Yes, this is the first, can he see it? Second, can he see it moving? Third, will he grasp for it? Mm -hmm. Then when he grasps for it, will he drop it or will he keep it? And depending on what he does with the rattle, we can see what his adaptive behavior is. How is he adapting himself to his environment? Uh -huh. Because he is reaching out, you see, when he grabs it. Mm -hmm. Well, how about Desi? He looks pretty adaptive there, huh? Desi is a pretty well -adapted baby. He's very well -adjusted to his environment. And he's by and large a very happy baby, except when he's hungry. Well, let's don't hold up a lunch any longer. Thank you very much, Desi. Mrs. Neff, this is an elegant old mansion here. And you're the housemother of it. And you must be equated with an awful lot of girls. How do you feel about that? Oh, I think it's wonderful. The girls are wonderful, and I really fall in love with them. Mm -hmm. How long have you been here?

Seven years, it's August. I guess it'd be hard to look back and estimate how many girls have passed through here since that time, wouldn't it? Well, I remember the first year I was here, the director told me at average is about 100 a year. I counted it and was 99. And I thought that was close enough, I haven't counted since. However, I could check up to know exactly because I have the record. Well, your job here is basically to make these girls feel as if they're in a home, isn't it? That's right. And they all work together as a kind of a big family. That's right. You're the housemother. Even though it's an institution, we have rules. It's like a big family. Each one has their own job. We get along fine. Any members of the family ever give you trouble? Not much, once in a great while. Do you come from a large home yourself, Mrs. Neve? Well, I've raised a family. And I have seven sisters. And now you've got a big family here. Yes. Do you enjoy it? Very

much. Very much. Do you ever follow any of the girls when they leave here? No. One of the things the director mentioned when I first came was that I couldn't keep up correspondence with them. It'd be impossible. And I shouldn't try. And so far, I think I've only answered one letter. And I'll let the director read it, though I get many letters. I like for the girls to know that I can't answer. I couldn't be impossible. Do you actually do you establish firm and basic friendships with a great many of the girls? Oh, I think I do, but I've always tried to be the kind that I can turn them loose. So to speak, I try not to tie them to my apron strings until they can't get loose for me or me from them. I don't want that much closeness. All right, you said that this is a family and a kind of an institution. Is this a happy family?

Yes, I think it's very happy. Now you're a Jane. And how do you like it here? I like it very much. You came here by choice. That's right. You had your pick and you picked this one. I picked this place. Any particular reason? Well, I had read an article in the Chicago Tribune just before I came in. And I liked the way the program was set up. That the girls did the work. They did their share of work. And they actually, we were actually working for our board and room without any pay. And I just liked the program that was set up in here. I see you're knitting. Did you know how to knit before you came in here? I started just before Christmas. And since I've come in, I've made several things. I enjoy it, it relaxes me quite a bit. How do you get along with the girls here? Oh, the girls. They're just wonderful. They really are. They're all friendly and they're nice. And of course, sometimes we do get into arguments and little bickering, but that's natural. And they always seem to

forget quite easily. I mean, they don't hold it against you at all. Well, Jane, you've met a lot of girls through your life. Are there any here that you'll remember that you want to retain a permanent friendship with? Yes, there are some very definitely girls that I've roomed with and girls I've cooked with. And it seems like you get closer to them when you work with them closely. Do you have any plans for when you get out? Yes, I'm going back into the business world. Into the business. You were in the business world before you came in. Do you enjoy it here? Oh, yes. We had a party last Saturday night. I think everybody enjoyed that. They brought one of the exhilaries brought in a party in the food. And we didn't have to cook and we didn't have to wash dishes. And we had entertainment and we danced. And we really enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. What does this meant to you, this experience? What does what meaning does it have to you? Well, actually, I've learned a lot from this. And I think I'll be a better person for it after I get out. I think I'll know how to deal with the family and have more understanding of

people. I won't be so quick to judge them. All right, thank you very much, Jane. Thank you. Supervisor of the adoption program here is Mrs. Pegg Ellison, who's had a very great amount of experience in this field. And I'd like to ask her how much? Well, that isn't a good question to ask a woman, because it sort of reveals her age. But I say I started in 31. Off and on. I was married with the family before I went into social work. So there were years when I did work in years when I didn't work. What led you to a founding home? Curiosity, possibly, to start with. I had been working for a large agency in the city, and I thought I would like to work in a small agency where I could have a little more freedom to use my own ideas and initiative. And I knew the director, Mrs. Crenshaw, I liked her. I liked what she was doing,

so I joined her. Exactly what does your job consist of? Mainly screening and studying homes and supervising some part -time experienced case workers who also helped me with studies. What kind of homes do you find that the girls who are here come from? A very wide variety of homes. I would say almost any conceivable home that you would want to mention. Well, what basically would cause the fact that they're here? You say emotional problem? Or is this a statistical element? Are there just so many girls in any given age group or population group who would turn up here? Just what accounts for this, would you say? I don't know, but I think Leotine Young, who's quite an expert in this field, has hit it rather well when she says that the girl is usually a sensitive girl on the conforming side,

fairly a passive in her reactions to people. So that she uses symptoms instead of your acting out or so -called delinquent behavior. Well, Mrs. Allison, I've noted here that you try to overcome a sense of shame. Does this mean that you feel the girls haven't done anything wrong? I don't like the words right and wrong. I think that in this world you do the thing that is best for you, your community, your family, and so forth. And if it's constructive, if it's helping you to adjust in your community, for me, that's right. But you do try to overcome the sense of shame. I don't think the shame ever helped anybody. We all have it, and it's a part of our heritage and we need it because it sometimes acts as a motivating force. I mean, it makes you do things. But if you just will stay in it, then of course it becomes a very crippling thing. Well, Mrs. Allison, this is really three homes in one. Isn't it a kind of a, of course, basically a Foundlings home? And

you have a maternity center and you also have a placement agency here, don't you? Yes. We call it an integrated service, basically based on the needs and problems of the unmarried mother. And the adoption program is one service that we give to her. Well, I know you take great care in placing children here in a home. What kind of care do you take? Well, basically we're looking for a couple who has a good marriage. By a good marriage, I mean one that is deeply satisfying to both of them. And they come out of environments that give them good relationships with people. That is, they like people. They get along with people. They've liked their parents. They've liked their siblings. They enjoy people. They enjoy living. And if they do these things, then we can go on

from there to refine it a little bit and find out what their strengths are and what kind of children they can do the most for. Do you work with these parents on an individual basis to try to shape and fit their particular need to with a particular child that you have in mind? Well, frankly, we concentrate on the baby. We try to find the family that best meets the baby's needs because we are predominantly interested in the child. If we have a child with a physical handicap and we have a number of them, we will go all out to find the person not only that is willing to take the child, but has the necessary skills to do it. Do people adopt children with physical handicaps? Yes. Why? Because they're special people with special abilities just like you find doctors that specialize in certain things. They can do it. And always you look for a good home course. That's right. There are certain things we like for it to be a first marriage, not a second, not what we believe that second marriage can be highly successful, but

we find it easier. We want them to be well within the age limit that they might have a baby, and we want them to have some kind of religious affiliation so that they can rare the baby at the best of our culture. Well, we know that nothing is perfect, but what percentage of adoptions from this home work out well? Would you say 90%, 80%. I've only been here four years. In the four years that I've been here, I would say that 90%, yes, maybe better than that. In other words, there seems to be a kind of a guiding hand here to help you. There always is. I would hate to take this sole responsibility for placing a baby. I think I'd share it with the staff. I'd share it with the psychologist, the psychiatrist. Gone. There is the precious combination. And if it is true, that is greatest, which serves the greatest need. The work of the Chicago Foundlings' home makes

its own case, carrying on this year and the next. That there shall be no mother and no child without the intrinsic right to live with hope. Dr. Shipman would be proud. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound.