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The National Florence Crittenton Mission was an organization established in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton. It attempted to reform prostitutes and unwed pregnant women through the creation of establishments where they were to live and learn skills.
The first of the organization's homes was located in New York City. Seven years later, in 1890, the second Florence Crittenton Home was opened in San Jose, California. Shortly thereafter, pioneering female physician Kate Waller Barrett joined Charles Crittenton as the driving force behind the organization and helped expand the Crittenton movement into a network of affiliated homes that at its peak included 76 homes across the U.S., in addition to homes in China, France, Japan and Mexico.
The National Crittenton Foundation This turn of the 20th century social welfare movement helped shape the professionalization of social work, and changed social attitudes about motherhood and the role of women in society. Barrett's views on the education and training of women were considered radical at the time, but these ideas were adopted into the services provided to young women and girls at many Crittenton homes.
A special act of Congress in 1898, signed by President McKinley, granted a national charter in perpetuity to the National Florence Crittenton Mission, and was the first U.S. national charter ever given to a charitable organization. The headquarters of the national mission was in Washington, D.C., Washington, D. C. The largest work of the mission was carried out in
National Florence Crittenton Mission records
at th
Social Welfare History Archives
University of Minnesota Libraries. History of New York City 1883 establishments in the United States Adoption-related organizations
The National Florence Crittenton Mission was an organization established in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton. It attempted to reform prostitutes and unwed pregnant women through the creation of establishments where they were to live and learn skills.
History
The first of the organization's homes was located in New York City. Seven years later, in 1890, the second Florence Crittenton Home was opened in San Jose, California. Shortly thereafter, pioneering female physician Kate Waller Barrett joined Charles Crittenton as the driving force behind the organization and helped expand the Crittenton movement into a network of affiliated homes that at its peak included 76 homes across the U.S., in addition to homes in China, France, Japan and Mexico.The National Crittenton Foundation This turn of the 20th century social welfare movement helped shape the professionalization of social work, and changed social attitudes about motherhood and the role of women in society. Barrett's views on the education and training of women were considered radical at the time, but these ideas were adopted into the services provided to young women and girls at many Crittenton homes.
A special act of Congress in 1898, signed by President McKinley, granted a national charter in perpetuity to the National Florence Crittenton Mission, and was the first U.S. national charter ever given to a charitable organization. The headquarters of the national mission was in Washington, D.C., Washington, D. C. The largest work of the mission was carried out in New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
In 1950, there were two organizations associated with the original mission: the National Florence Crittenton Mission and the Florence Crittenton Homes Association, which had its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois
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. In 1976, the Florence Crittenton Association of America merged with the Child Welfare League of America. The Florence Crittenton Mission continued to provide financial support to the Crittenton Division of the Child Welfare League.
In 2006, The National Florence Crittenton Mission adopted a new name: The National Crittenton Foundation. The organization separated from the Child Welfare League of America and returned to being a stand-alone organization affiliated with dozens of Crittenton-affiliated agences around the country. The National Crittenton Foundation
National Crittenton is a Portland, Oregon-based American organization that works with at-risk and criminal justice system-involved girls, young women and their families. The foundation is affiliated with 25 member agencies operating across the cou ...
's headquarters are located in Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
.
Past criticism
The National Florence Crittenton Mission's approach toadoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...
and to unwed pregnancy has been criticized largely due to policies used decades ago. In the past, rather than to aid pregnant women, families sent them to Crittenton homes to hide them from public view and avoid shame. Women in these homes were required to give up their children for adoption. The coercive practices of these homes were detailed in ''The Girls Who Went Away
''The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade'' is a 2006 book by Ann Fessler which describes and recounts the experiences of women in the United States who relinquish ...
''. This mirrored a practice found in Europe generally and in Italy specifically occurring from the Middle Ages to its full flowering in the 19th century. (See Kertzer, David I. ''Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control.'' Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.)
References
External links
Finding aid for thNational Florence Crittenton Mission records
at th
Social Welfare History Archives
University of Minnesota Libraries. History of New York City 1883 establishments in the United States Adoption-related organizations