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Newsletter 35 Summer 2003
THE ADOPTION HISTORY PROJECT
Professor Ellen Herman, at the University of Oregon in Eugene, has created the
first web site on the history of child adoption in the United States. The web
site address is http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~adoption.
The Adoption History Project is a digital public history resource, profiling people,
organizations, topics, and studies that shaped modern American adoption in theory
and practice. Hundreds of images and primary documents illustrate such topics
as the orphan trains, infertility, sealed records, eugenics, baby farming, telling,
and transracial, international, and special needs adoptions.
"Currently, there is almost nothing about adoption history available on the
Internet," said Herman. "Many people with personal and professional
ties to adoption may not be aware that adoption has a history at all. I hope the
site will begin to fill this gap and tell the fascinating story of adoption's
past." The web site will also interest high school and college teachers who
cover child welfare, family life, public policy, and related issues in their history
and social studies classes.
Advance praise for the Adoption History Project
"The Adoption History Project is a brilliant technical and scholarly
accomplishment that places a vast amount of information about adoption at the
click of a mouse. Anyone, scholar or layperson, will benefit from using it. Five
stars!" -E. Wayne Carp, author of Family Matters; Secrecy and Disclosure
in the History of Adoption
"This beautifully designed and thoughtfully conceived site offers a wealth
of information on adoption. In particular, its extensive selection of documents
opens up rich possibilities for classroom use. This will become an indispensable
resource for anyone wanting to know more about the history of adoption and its
intersection with social work and psychology." -Barbara Melosh, author of
Strangers and Kin: The American Way of Adoption
"Ellen Herman has done an extraordinary job. Such a thoughtful, comprehensive
examination of adoption's history was long overdue. It will be a valuable resource
for anyone interested in the subject and for every professional in the field."
-Adam Pertman, Executive Director, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, author
of Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America
The Adoption History Project is supported by the National Science Foundation and
the Center for History and New Media. Ellen Herman is the author of The Romance
of American Psychology: Political Culture in the Age of Experts. She is currently
completing a book, Kinship by Design, about the history of child adoption in twentieth-century
United States