Art: Changing Images of Childhood

Using paintings, Atlanta show traces evolving U.S. attitudes

"The easiest way of becoming acquainted with the rules of conduct and the prevailing manner of any people," wrote St. John de Crevecoeur in 1782 about his years in America, "is to examine what sort of education they give their children, how they treat them at home, and what they are taught." Among the most vivid documents tracing our evolving attitudes toward children are the works of American artists. Using their portraits as a kind of visual social history, Emory University Graduate Student Rosamund Humm organized...