Question about the new birth mother display at the state history museum

I was at the state history museum in Topeka last weekend and they have a new section on family law. The part about birth mothers only had one photo from the 1950s and a short paragraph, which felt really incomplete. Has anyone else seen a better representation in a museum somewhere?

3 comments

3 Comments

zara_miller2mo ago

Yeah, that sounds pretty thin. I saw a much better display at a children's history museum in Indianapolis that used audio clips and personal letters. It really gave a voice to the mothers instead of just a footnote.

claire_campbell2mo ago

Wait, only one photo? From seventy years ago? That's crazy. It makes it seem like adoption just stopped happening after black and white TV. They could show court documents, different decades, even a modern day quote. Feels like they just checked a box and called it done.

jordan1841mo agoMost Upvoted

Whoa, yeah, that's a bummer. I remember listening to a podcast about how a lot of museums just grab whatever old photo they can find for stuff like this, even if it doesn't tell the whole story. The Indianapolis display with audio clips sounds way better, like they actually talked to some of those women. You'd think the state museum would at least pull from more recent decades or maybe some local family court records to give a fuller picture.