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. 2002 May;92(5):742-52.
doi: 10.2105/ajph.92.5.742.

Making better babies: public health and race betterment in Indiana, 1920-1935

Alexandra Minna Stern  1
Affiliations

Making better babies: public health and race betterment in Indiana, 1920-1935

Alexandra Minna Stern. Am J Public Health. 2002 May.

Abstract

In 1920, Indiana's Division of Infant and Child Hygiene inaugurated its first Better Babies Contest at the state fair. For the next 12 years, these contests were the centerpiece of a dynamic infant and maternal welfare program that took shape in Indiana during the decade of the federal Sheppard-Towner act. More than just a lively spectacle for fairgoers, these contests brought public health, "race betterment," and animal breeding together in a unique manner. This article describes one of the most popular expressions of public health and race betterment in rural America. It also raises questions about the intersections between hereditarian and medical conceptions of human improvement during the early 20th century, especially with respect to child breeding and rearing.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Contestants (probably winners) from the 1927 Better Babies Contest, accompanied by Division of Infant and Child Hygiene nurses. (Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Archives, Indiana Commission on Public Records.)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Baby Contest Building and spectators, Indiana State Fair, 1929 (Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Archives, Indiana Commission on Public Records.)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Spectators watching the various testing and measurement tables at the 1930 contest. (Photo courtesy of the Indiana State Archives, Indiana Commission on Public Records.)
None
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

  • Taking better baby contests seriously.
    Pernick MS. Pernick MS. Am J Public Health. 2002 May;92(5):707-8. doi: 10.2105/ajph.92.5.707. Am J Public Health. 2002. PMID: 11988430 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

References

    1. “Hopeful Mothers and Fathers Bring Children to Baby Contest,” Indianapolis News, 4 September 1929, 1, 14.
    1. See Hub of the Universe, Monthly Bulletin of the Indiana State Board of Health (ISBH), and the Indianapolis News, especially editorials from 1920 through 1932.
    1. See “Division of Infant and Child Hygiene, Monthly Report, September 1932,” Monthly Bulletin of the ISBH 35 (1932): 154–155.
    1. Thurman B. Rice, The Hoosier Health Officer: A Biography of Dr. John N. Hurty and the History of the Indiana State Board of Health to 1925 (Indianapolis: np, 1946), 316.
    1. James H. Madison, Indiana Through Tradition and Change: A History of the Hoosier State and its People, 1920–1945 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1982), 322. Rates from 1910 to 1925 listed in “State Fair Better Babies Demonstrations,” 11-16-1, Central File (CF) 1925–28, Record Group (RG) 102, United States Children's Bureau (CB), National Archives at College Park (NACP). On national infant mortality rates, which averaged about 1% higher than those in Indiana, see Dorothy Pawluch, The New Pediatrics: A Profession in Transition (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1996).

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