page_title: Mary Allen West
section_title: Childhood: Its Care and Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Mary Allen West / Career / Childhood: Its Care and Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Childhood: Its Care and Culture, By Mary Allen West
context_page_description: Mary Allen West was an American journalist, editor, educator, philanthropist, superintendent of schools, and temperance worker. A teacher in her early career, she served as superintendent of schools in Knox County, Illinois, being one of the first women to fill such a position in Illinois. An active supporter of the temperance movement, West served as president of the Illinois Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and editor of the national paper, Union Signal. Her other roles within the WCTU included superintendent of the Training School for Temperance Workers, Illinois State Superintendent of Temperance in Schools of Higher Education, as well as Stockholder, Director, and Secretary of the Woman's Publication Association. She was the first president of the Illinois Woman's Press Association, member of the Chicago Woman's Club, director of the Protective Agency for Women and Children. West was the author of Childhood: Its Care and Culture. She died in Japan while training temperance workers in organization and promotion reform efforts.
context_section_description: While serving as Illinois state president of the WCTU, and traveling throughout the state, the knowledge she gained of the inner life of thousands of homes, together with her intimate studies of children in the schoolroom, efficiently supplemented her natural bias for the task of writing her book for mothers, Childhood, its Care and Culture. It was published by the Woman's Temperance Association of Chicago in 1892. In it, the author claimed that the book "has grown naturally out of the rich soil of a thousand homes," which was interpreted to mean that the author wrote from experience and observation and not from mere theory.
  The contents were varied, including chapters on the child's body, babyhood, childhood, boyhood and girlhood, children's rights, work and play, amusements, behavior, domestic economy, family government, practical health hints, and other topics. There were also a number of illustrations, and, interspersed among the reading matter, were songs set to music, suitable for the nursery and the home. The book was an octavo of 722 pages, including a copious index. It was pervaded by strong Christian and temperance sentiment, the author holding that the growth in a child of a true and healthy religious and physical life was greatly to be desired and sought after, not only for its own sake, but for the general well being of society. On the various practical questions coming under treatment, the views set forth were characterized as sound and sensible.
  The variety and range of topics almost invited the remark that some at least must suffer from superficial or hackneyed treatment, but the author appeared to have labored conscientiously and carefully over each section, and to have brought together many wise thoughts and counsels for the benefit of those who really desire guidance and help in the care and nurture of children.
caption: Childhood: Its Care and Culture (1892)
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