Tami Blog #9: Hidden Lives Revealed: A Virtual Archive - Children in Care 1881 - 1918

Hidden Lives Revealed: Children in Care 1881 - 1918 is an online exhibit created by The Children’s Society, a “national charity committed to making childhood better for all children in the UK.” The organization began in 1881 as the Waifs and Strays Society and by 1918 had run nearly 175 homes all around England and Wales, caring for approximately 22,500 children. "Hidden Lives Revealed" was one of three New Opportunities Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund) funded projects that formed the Citizenship Past consortium.

Collection Principles

“Hidden Lives Revealed” focuses on the period of 1881 – 1918 and includes unique material concerning the children cared for by The Waifs and Strays Society. The site features a range of archival material, most of it not previously accessible to the public, as well as articles and learning resources to assist in the interpretation of the materials to a modern audience. The site features full contents of approximately 150 case files of the children. Even though some of these files are from over 100 years ago, they are all fully anonymous to prevent the identification of the children. Each case is summarized, and linked to pages about the actual homes they lived in.

Photographs illustrate the poverty and desperation of the time, and also show how many of the children's lives were turned around when they entered the Society's care.

Also featured on the site are various Society publications, including the magazines Our Waifs and Strays and Brothers and Sisters, as well as the organization's Annual Reports. While the site maintains that these documents are searchable, this statement proved to be erroneous. I could find no way to search these documents. In addition, the basic search tool provided for the case files and photographs was ineffectual, as searching for known keywords provided no results. The Advanced Search, however, provided better results.

The site also has an Activities section which includes games such as crossword puzzles and information on the Rover League, a collection of letters and newspaper clippings in which animals ask for donation for the homes. In addition, this section also contains a Virtual Children’s Home, loosely based on architectural drawings held in the Society’s archives. Users can click on various parts of the home and see photographs of the rooms and descriptions on how the children lived. The site also has a page containing e-cards and downloadable screensavers.

However, my favorite area of this site is the Learning Materials. Using primary sources, this section provides interesting questions, worksheets, and fact files exploring the lives of destitute children in the late 1800s. As the section states on its home page, “On these pages you can find out what it was like to be REALLY poor in Victorian and Edwardian times.” It also provides teaching aids to go along with the information.

Object Characteristics

The photographs and documents are jpegs. The documents are available in two sizes, small and large, with the large size being large enough to be easily read or viewed. The photographs, however, can only be seen in their thumbnail versions and a slightly larger size of approximately 350x235. All materials are downloadable.

Metadata

The metadata is very good. Each photographs includes a reference number, title, date, location, creator, description, and copyright information. In addition, each case file has a number of appropriate search terms applied to each one and can be browsed and searched by these keywords. The annual reports and magazines include dates of publication and can be viewed in whole.

Intended Audience

I feel that this site was created particularly to aid teachers in the development of lesson plans on this subject. In addition, I believe the Society is quite proud of their legacy and contribution to the welfare of children in the UK and felt obligated to honor this legacy by creating a site. The information presented in "Hidden Lives Revealed" offers very personal and unique insights into Victorian times and would be quite useful to researchers and scholars.