| Imagined Orphans: Poor Families, Child Welfare, and Contested Citizenship in London Subjects: Child welfare -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century; Child welfare -- England -- London -- History -- 20th century; Poor children -- Institutional care -- England -- London -- History -- 19th century; Poor children -- Institutional care -- Engla; With his dirty, tattered clothes and hollowed-out face, Oliver Twist is the enduring symbol of the young indigent spilling out of orphanages and haunting the streets of late-nineteenth-century London. Although poor children were often portrayed as real-life Oliver Twists--either orphaned or abandoned by unworthy parents--they in fact frequently maintained contact and were eventually reunited with their families. LYDIA MURDOCH is an assistant professor of history at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. |