Making Comics for Critical Historical Geographies: Mothers’ Letters to the U.S. Children’s Bureau in the 1910s and 1920s

In this paper we use graphic-novel style illustrations of early twentieth century American mothers’ writings to visualize the stories of an often-overlooked population. Inspired by others’ weavings of comics and geography, we bring together artistic, historical, and critical geographic methods to share and interpret handwritten letters sent to the U.S. Children’s Bureau in the 1910s and 1920s. These letters serve as primary sources for our comics, which in turn illuminate the intersections of patriarchy, parenting, and place. Joining a growing body of work, we find comics to be appealing for critical historical geographies through their power to reveal and represent emotions and embodiment, positionality and place, and the (im)mobilities of women at the time.