The Landscape of Charity in California:
The Landscape of Charity in California:
First Imprints in San Francisco
In the chaotic years following the Gold Rush, when homeless children roamed the streets of San Francisco, Protestant and Catholic women built the first imprints in the landscape of charity in the new state of California. The charitable public insisted that indigent children not be housed in the almshouse or the city jail but rather in different institutions than adults. The Industrial School, built by the government and run by men, is compared with the Protestant Orphan Asylum, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, and other woman-run charities for children. Capitalizing on gender in the mixed economy of social welfare to win a foothold in public culture, women raised money to replace repurposed houses with purpose-built orphanages and used state subsidies to offset costs. Location, design, construction material, style, and program are compared, and the invidious effects of the feminization of poverty, nativism, and racism assessed in the rapidly urbanizing West.
Keywords: Gold Rush, homeless children, almshouse, industrial school, public culture, Protestant and Catholic orphanages, feminization of poverty, nativism, racism
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