The field of children’s history was, in part, founded on a belief that there was little evidence to be found in the archive. This assumed that because the sources that we use to understand the past are often created by adults, that they would reveal little about the lives of young people. But researchers who work in the field of children’s history today know that childhood can be found in many different archives, just as they know definitions of children and youth are fluid and changeable over time.
Historical Childhoods aims to highlight the knowledge we have developed about how childhood has been understood and experienced at different times and in different places. This site allows us to showcase the creative and interesting ways that researchers have come to know about childhood in the past and how they use a range of archives to tell stories of historical childhoods. It also allows us to learn from each other by facilitating connections between researchers and archives.
Some key questions for this community of researchers include:
- How do we know what it was like to be a child in the past?
- What do different archives reveal about childhood in the past?
- How have societies shaped the world of children?
- What was it like to be a child during periods of crisis or major upheaval?
- How was children’s education and work understood in the past?
- How did children play and entertain themselves?
- How did ideas about physical and mental ability shape understandings of childhood?
- What impact did cultural and linguistic difference have on the lives of children?
- How have children shaped the ‘adult world’?
Historical records hold answers to many of these questions.
During 2024 and 2025 you can expect to see the content expanding.
