How to Take Care of the Father and the Family

1923

Truby King Collection HQ 734 M463

Ottawa [Canada]: F.A. Acland

Truby King believed there was no higher calling for a woman than motherhood and care of the family, with the goal of growing healthy children to guard against ‘racial decay’ in the Empire. His own mother was probably his exemplar, as described by Erik Olssen (1981): ‘pious, pure, submissive, supportive…a most excellent wife and mother’. King believed if society could get motherhood right then admissions to ‘asylums, hospitals, benevolent institutions, gaols and slums’ would be drastically reduced. Like King, the Canadian public health advocate Dr Helen MacMurchy (1862-1953) feared ‘racial decay’. She wrote a series of ‘Blue Book’ pamphlets outlining best practice for motherhood and household management. Here, baby is ‘trying to think’.