Tuesday, February 2, 2021

The American Adoption Era, and Louise Wise Agency

Lakeview Home for Unwed Jewish Mothers, Staten Island, NY
For thirty years, from 1945 to 1975, there was an increased rate of pregnancies outside of marriage that did not immediately result in either speedy ‘shotgun’ marriages or adoptions into the mothers’ extended families, and hence an increase of babies channeled into the adoption business. And business it was. In the United States, well-to-do parents of pregnant daughters would pay to send their daughters “away” to places such as, Florence Critterton Homes, or in New York City, the Lakeview Home for Unwed Jewish Mothers. Girls from poorer families often ended up at homes operated by religious organizations. At the other end of the process, thousands of families were clamoring to adopt children. The numbers were staggering; for a time, for every child that was placed, there were ten families still waiting for a baby. Whether by fee or ‘donation,’ money flowed in from that end, too.  

Estimates of the total number of adoptions during the ‘adoption era’ range from 1.5 to 4.0 million. Most of the women giving up children were young and unmarried, trapped by conservative postwar mores that forbade premarital sex and restricted birth control, even as the sexual revolution simmered.

The hardship on these birth mothers was intense and long lasting. Once ensconced in a ‘home’ they were not given any option toward choosing to leave with their child. They were counseled to never tell anyone, even their husbands if they later married. One woman recounted pretending she was a ‘virgin’ after her wedding and how ironic that felt given that she had already been in a sexual relationship and given birth.

The end of the adoption era – meaning, specifically, the decline of a supply of white babies from birth mothers living in the United States – was the consequence of several changes. Major among these were the growing availability of effective birth control, legalization of abortion and acceptance of single parenthood. It was in 1965 that the Supreme Court ruled for a constitutional right of married couples to use birth control, and then in 1972 that the same right applied to unmarried people. January 1973 saw Supreme Court legalization of abortion. The U.S. prevalence of single parenthood (which includes children of divorce in addition to never-married) is among the highest in the world.   

And what has all this to do with Maynard? Nothing. It’s about me. I was one of the products of Lakeview Home, which channeled its babies to the Louise Wise Adoption Agency. Louise Wise closed its doors in 2004, after 90-plus years of infant brokering. All records were turned over to another agency. According to what I received from Spence-Chapin in 2007, I was born in 1951, with a document showing a birth name given by my biological mother. The records go on to state that my birth mother was Jewish, single, 20.5 years old, born in the U.S., 5'6", blond hair, blue eyes, high school graduate, working in textile design, interested in arts and music. My birth father was described as Jewish, single, either 20 or 23 years old, born in U.S., 6' tall, black hair, brown eyes. Each had a brother, so out there, somewhere, two uncles, and cousins.  

All of this possibly false. The Louise Wise Agency became notorious for having given out bogus information about birth parents. For example, children surrendered by women who were institutionalized for mental illnesses were given similarly detailed ‘glowing’ backgrounds. The thinking at the time was that schizophrenia, depression, autism and bipolar disorders were the results of how children had been raised, so giving an adopted child a ‘clean’ family medical history would allow the nurture of the adopting parents to outweigh any presumed influences of nature, i.e., genetics of the birth parents. Louise Wise also did some secret twins splitting, and in one infamous instance triplets splitting, to see what the outcomes were when the infants were placed with families of different socioeconomic states.  

There was a five-month gap between my birth and adoption. This was not unusual. Babies were often kept in foster care for months to a year, some times more, so that placement social workers could observe their health and responses to rudimentary intelligence tests, so that they might be matched with appropriate families. During the holding period, some were made available to home economics classes, so that unmarried women could practice being mothers. (Eeeek!)

Louise Wise fostered infants with families. There is not enough information to determine if families had more than one infant at a time, or how closely infant health was monitored. In my records and others, it appears that a 'psychological examination' was conducted at age three months. I was described to be "...an alert and responsive child functioning in the superior range of intelligence." There are no authenticated tests for infants that measure intelligence, so no idea what this is about.

A few years back I went through DNA analysis, not it the hope of finding biological relatives (and relieved I did not), but rather to get information on genetics of my biological father. The answer confirmed Ashkenazi Jewish on that side, too.   

 

16 comments:

  1. Hi David,
    I’m also a product of Louise Wise and the lake view home in 1954.
    I have reunited with my birth family and it’s been a very happy experience. I consider them as much my family as my adoptive one, and more so in the siblings.
    If you’d like to chat, I’m available
    Suzy Saffitz Tisinger on Facebook.

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    1. My brother was born in 1958 and left at Louis Wise services..any thoughts o. How I can find what happened to him?

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  2. Leaning toward not trying to find a birth mother who would be 90-91 if still alive. Furthermore, relieved that DNA testing did not discover any close relatives, such as father, aunts, uncles, half-sibs, niece or nephews, or first cousins.

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  3. Does anyone remember the name of the hospital that the facility used during the early 60's? I was there in 1961-2 and would like to know the name of the hospital where my son was born. I thought maybe it was Staten Island University Hosp but really I am not sure.

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    1. I was born in 1965 in Staten island General Hospital that no longer exists. My birth mother was at Lakeview. They were very mean and shaming to unwed mothers I have been told.

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    2. Staten Island General Hospital which is no longer there.

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    3. My mother was at Lakeview in 1961-1962, and I was told I was born at St. Vincent's Hospital.

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    4. Hello .. we learned today that our mom Winifred T Vogel also known as Winnie or Wendy was at the home in 1961-62 as my sister was born May 15 1962 .. Do have any recollection of our mama. She passed away a year ago. We have so many questions and don't know where to turn.
      Thank you so much,
      Elaina

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  4. I have no info on that. See Staten Island University Hospital at Wikipedia for some possibly useful information.

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  5. I was born in 1958 at the Staten Island Hospital per my original birth certificate.

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  6. I just found out that my mom was at Lakeview/Louise Wise and I know I was born at Richmond Hospital. Georgette

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  7. I just discovered that my mom was at Lakeview when I was born in 1962. I was born at Richmond Hospital in Staten Island. Georgette Law

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  8. Hello, I just found that the dad who raised my sister was not her biological dad.
    Our mom was in this time probably in 1961 as my sister was born on. May 15 1962.
    Our mom's name was Winifred (often called Winnie or Wendy) Vogel? our family has so many questions but our mom passed away a year ago. Does anyone remember her?

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  9. If you were born 4/30/1958 Staten Island Hospital and adopted using Louis Wise please reply. If anyone knows how I can locate this person please reply

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  10. The Louise Wise documents were forwarded to Spence Chapin 212-369-0300. Spence can provide documents about the infants, but not about who adopted by. Call Spence to find out if exceptions.

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  11. Interesting. My great aunt (grandfather's sister) had her baby at Lakeview probably sometime in 1959 or 1960. My great aunt passed away in 1968. My mother's family has hoped for years to see if they could find her son, if he wants to be found that is.

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