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Infant cages and babies sunbathing on nursery lawn in the Israeli settlement of Gat. February 12, 1946. View full size. Matson Photo Service.
It must have been warmer here in February 1946 than February 2008. I'm freezing my backside off, and can't imagine babies being naked outside in this weather!
I had one in the front yard as a child that my father built to prevent me from running into the road. Seems strange now, but I'm probably alive today because of it. It was fun. I called it my playhouse.
Wow. I would have assumed that the babies would have got too hot and sunburnt left outside for the length of time that having specific cages built there would suggest.
[Probably not in February - Dave]
The so-called cages were there, simply, to keep flies and mosquitoes off the babies...
This was taken at a kibbutz which is located about 3 miles from my own kibbutz, Gal-On, which at the time did not yet exist and only was founded some months later, in October of 1946!
The Matson Photo Service was an endeavor of the American Colony Society in the Holy Land. The American Colony was an independent, utopian, Christian sect formed by religious pilgrims who emigrated to Jerusalem from the United States and Sweden. The history of the Colony is intimately linked to the photography collection it spawned.
To this day the collection, now mostly housed in the Library of Congress, remains the most extensive photographic record of the Middle East.
Very highly recommended!
The closest thing to these cages I've seen is an infant hospital bed; they are completely closed in!
I have a home daycare....I wonder how this set up would go over with the parents!!!! :-)
I don't think I've ever seen an infant cage till now. That's definitely something that wouldn't float these days.
Cute little guys getting some sun!
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