Digital exhibits
Explore online exhibits curated from the Social Welfare History Archives.
Keeping Fit
"Keeping Fit" was a 48-poster series produced by the U.S. Public Health Service and the YMCA in 1919. It was designed to educate teenage boys and young men about the dangers of sexual promiscuity and urged them to embrace moral and physical fitness. A parallel series, "Youth and Life" was designed for girls and young women.
Seeing Child Labor
Child labor evokes images of exploitation. And yet, it’s complicated. Through one photographer’s lens, we can see children working under terrible conditions, and we also can see children working along with their families, children reading while they work, children playing in workplaces, and children doing schoolwork. Through these images, we view children across the globe as more than just “objects” who are manipulated by adults. Though relatively powerless, they are also active subjects who see the world through their own perspectives and act on it as agents.
Youth and Life
"Youth and Life" was a 48-poster series, designed to educate teenage girls and young women about the dangers of sexual promiscuity and urged them to embrace moral and physical fitness. It was adapted in 1922 by the American Social Hygiene Association from "Keeping Fit", a similar series for boys and young men.