Children’s Voices in the 19th Century and What it Revealed about Adult Constructions of Childhood

Year: 
2016
Recipient Name: 
Stephanie Liang
Faculty Mentor Name: 
Courtney Weikle-Mills
Faculty Mentor Department: 
English
Librarian / Archivist: 
Clare Withers
Description: 
My project examines child voices in juvenile periodicals of the 19th Century, including St. Nicholas Magazine and Robert Merry’s Museum, in order to learn what these voices reveal about the adult construction of childhood. In my research, I have uncovered the ways in which adults impose their authority in these spheres created for and populated by children, such as the St. Nicholas League and the Letterbox columns. Through content restrictions, word limits, and required adult-endorsements of child-authored work, adults follow a very narrow idea of the child to exist within their pages, one that fits with their notions of what a child should look and sound like. The practice of allowing a child to speak but then regulating that voice and selecting only voices that exemplify a fictionalized, “ideal” version of a child helped perpetuate adult authority and the myth of childhood, which exists even in the present day.
Photo: 
Stephanie doing research on a laptop