New exhibit on display about Westborough’s child welfare history
Community Content
WESTBOROUGH — A new exhibit, “Changing Pictures of Childhood: A Comparative History of Child Welfare in Westborough” is now on display at the Westborough Public Library through the end of September.
The exhibit compares two approaches to child welfare that were practiced in Westborough at different points in history.
During the colonial period and the early years of the U.S., children who became charges to the town due to poverty, death, or neglect were placed in local households to work as servants. This system of pauper apprenticeship was governed by signed contracts that stipulated what the children were to be taught by their new owners, expectations for behavior by the children, and the length of the contract, usually until age 21 for boys and 18 for girls.