Baby Cages Used to Ensure That Children Get Enough Sunlight and Fresh Air, 1937

Baby Cages Used To Ensure That Children Get Enough Sunlight And Fresh Air When Living In An Apartment Building, 1937. It was taken in 1937, and like the best archival images it needs almost no explanation — the frame tells its own story.

Wire "baby cages" that hung out of apartment windows were a genuine product of the early twentieth century, patented in the United States in the 1920s and popular for a time in London blocks of flats. The theory, backed by childcare advice of the day, was that city babies needed fresh air and sunlight that cramped apartments could not provide. Changing safety standards ended the practice by mid-century.

Most photography of the period chased celebrities and headlines, which makes surviving images of daily routine all the more precious. This is what the world actually looked like when nobody thought it was worth remembering.