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Throughout the 19th century, 4-6% of all Danish children outside of Copenhagen below the age of 16 lived in a household, where they were not the child of the head of the household. Until now, the ways children, who were not part of the traditional family structure, were handled and provided for in 19th century Denmark has only been studied on a small scale. This thesis uses nine national Danish censuses 1787-1901, as well as linked data from census and baptism records in 3 parishes 1845 1880, to examine the position these children held in the household in relation to the household head and the other members. Special attention is given to the role played by close kin, and how illegitimate children were placed in relation to their mothers. During the century’s first half, the number of foster children increased strongly, a development which was associated with increasing illegitimacy rates. The number of children marked as “relations” also declined in the censuses after 1801, but linked baptism records suggest, that friends and close kin, especially maternal grandparents, may have played a larger role as foster parents to illegitimate children than evident from the census registrations. From the middle of the 19th century, the number of infants placed with foster parents rose sharply and the number living with their unwed mother fell. This suggest that from 1850 and onwards, unmarried women found it increasingly difficult to support the children on their own. Overall, the analysis reveals a remarkable variety in the circumstances and family situations among the children throughout the 19th century, as well as significant regional differences in unwed mothers’ ability to provide for their children, and the extent to which children were left to the care of either family or strangers. As follows, future studies of infant mortality rates and life and career paths of illegitimate children and children raised in foster households should recognize this (usually hidd

This study explores cause-specific infant mortality in Copenhagen between 1861 and 1911, using newly available individual-level data from The Copenhagen Burial Register, as part of a larger comparative project within the SHiP network (Studying the history of Health in Port Cities). The aim is to determine the dominant cause of death patterns for infants and to explore how the ICD10h coding system performs with the Danish individual-level historical causes of death. The results show that in Copenhagen, infant mortality began a distinct decline during the period of study (1861–1911), but the city experienced only very few changes in the cause of death pattern. While a transition from symptomatic to more specific causes of death took place over time, the largest killers overall were the water-food borne and airborne diseases, with a respectively summer and winter peak. The airborne and water-food borne diseases were mainly dominant amongst the post-neonates, whose mortality made up an increasingly larger share of infant deaths. Finally, the results show that although coding the Danish causes of death to the ICD10h has proven successful, more attention needs to be paid to different uses of the same cause of death by different nations, such as the case of atrophy.Louise LudvigsenUniversity of CopenhagenBarbara Revuelta-EugerciosDanish National Archives Anne LøkkeUniversity of Copenhagen, This study explores cause-specific infant mortality in Copenhagen between 1861 and 1911, using newly available individual-level data from The Copenhagen Burial Register, as part of a larger comparative project within the SHiP network (Studying the history of Health in Port Cities). The aim is to determine the dominant cause of death patterns for infants and to explore how the ICD10h coding system performs with the Danish individual level-historical causes of death. The results show that in Copenhagen, infant mortality began a distinct decline during the period of study (1861–1911), but the city experienced only very few changes in the cause of death pattern. While a transition from symptomatic to more specific causes of death took place over time, the largest killers overall were the water-food borne and airborne diseases, with a respectively summer and winter peak. The airborne and water-food borne diseases were mainly dominant amongst the post-neonates, whose mortality made up an increasingly larger share of infant deaths. Finally, the results show that although coding the Danish causes of death to the ICD10h has proven successful, more attention needs to be paid to different uses of the same cause of death by different nations, such as the case of atrophy.

Large-scale historical databases featuring individual-level causes of death offer the potential for longitudinal studies of health and illnesses. There is, however, a risk that the transformation of the primary sources into ‘data’ may strip them of the very qualities required for proper medical historical analysis. Based on a pilot study of all 11,100 deaths registered in Copenhagen in 1880–1881, we identify, analyse and discuss the challenges of transcribing and coding cause of death sources into a database. The results will guide us in building Link-Lives, a database featuring close to all nine million Danish deaths from 1787 to 1968. The main challenge is how to accommodate different older medical rationales in one classification system. Our key finding is multi-coding with more than one version of the ICD system (e.g. ICD-1893 and ICD-10) can be used as a novel method to systematically handle historical causes of death over time.

Leaving home is a major transition in the life course, both historically and in present time in western societies. So far the subject is in particular examined in the field of historical demography, but in a danish context relatively little is known about how and when children left home. The aim of this study is to examine the leaving home transition in one danish county in the second half of the 19th century. Through a two-piece analysis I determine the age at which the children in the county of Holbæk left their parental home and how they experienced the transition. By combing a demographic approach and a microhistorically approach my results differentiates from the field of research. The analysis is based on one census from the county of Holbæk from 1880, and 34 memoirs from skilled and unskilled workers who grew up in the county during the second half of the 19th century. This study argues that the majority of the children in the county of Holbæk left their parental home at the age of 14 or during the subsequent years. At the same time the memoirs testify that some children had their first move even earlier. I argue that many of the danish children left home at this age because of confirmation, which was a general practice in 19th century Denmark and took place at this age, since it symbolized a natural transition towards adulthood. In addition, this study shows that the transition was not a single event, but rather a back and forth movement. Many children left home and returned later in their life course. Leaving home involved that the child entered a new household. This included adapting to new rules, taking a new position as living away from the parental home, and contributing to the unfamiliar. Not only was the transition a radical change, it was also associated with deprivation. The combination of my source material shed lights on the fact that the age in this case should be understood as a continuum. I show that the age depended on the family’s e

This thesis examines the cremation movement in Denmark between the legalisation of cremation in 1892 and the municipalisation in 1913. My research question is: Who were the pioneers of cremation in these years? What characterised them as a group, and how were they able to achieve several successes in this period? I analyse two groups of pioneers: The cremation societies, and the first 146 people who were cremated in Denmark. I examine the two major Danish cremation societies through their annual publications. Forening for Ligbrænding represented the urban bourgeoisie and spearheaded the campaign for the legalisation of cremation as well as built the first two Danish crematoria. Folkelig Ligbrændingsforening was established in 1901 to give the working-class access to cremation. The new society’s intensive agitation roused a broader interest in cremation, and its insurance principle made cremation more economically accessible. In chapter 3, I draw a social profile of the first 146 people who were cremated in the years 1893-1900. For this analysis, I have built a database over these individuals from the information in the crematorium protocol and tied it to digitalised data from the Copenhagen burial protocols and the Danish census of 1880. The first 146 were by and large members of the well-educated and wealthy bourgeoisie, particularly merchants and civil servants as well as artisans and artists. Most of them came from Copenhagen, but some were transported over long distances. Twice as many men as women chose cremation in this period, and a significant part of the cremated were Jewish. I also draw attention to the outliers in this general profile. In two decades, cremation went from being a curiosity among the wealthy lead by a private grassroot organisation to a public offering at a much lower cost. The formation of Folkelig Ligbrændingsforening represents the first popularisation of cremation, while the most significant milestone for the movement was th

Female teachers outnumbered male teachers in both public and private Danish schools in the last decades of the 19th century. At this point in time it was unusual for the bourgeoisie women to work. What caused some of them to begin teaching according to themselves? What did these female pioneers gain and lose by entering this workforce? The answers to these questions are found by combing through 25 memoires written by female teachers born between 1827-1900 and 240 encyclopedic articles about female teachers born between 1807-1900 from Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon (Danish Female Biographical Lexicon). Theoretically inspired by Jean Anyon’s term ‘space of change,’ which describes contradictions inside a structure that has potential to change the structure itself, this study points out nonproductive factors. ‘Support’ from the women’s families, especially paternal, was essential. This ‘support’ could be of either an economic, cultural, social or symbolic nature following Pierre Bourdieu’s forms of capital. However, this support was more crucial to women born before 1850 than after. A majority of these 25 women describe themselves as clever kids eager to learn and content with school. These characteristics, acquired through ‘cultural support,’ were instrumental to becoming a teacher. Since teaching was one of only a few honorable working opportunities for women and academic competence and desire could be stimulated through this profession, it was both realistic and reasonable to choose this career. But the most common explanation among the 25 writers is simply described as a crucial eagerness to do something meaningful with their lives. A yearning to leave home and work either motivated by idealism or to achieve economic self-reliance. The idea of marriage based on true love had become a new romantic ideal and self-reliance made it possible for female teachers to turn down a marriage proposal from a male. Female teachers held the privilege to choose to stay

En undersøgelse af udviklingen i sygdomspanoramaet, behandlingerne og børneopfattelsen 1910-2010 ved Rigshospitalets børneafdeling.

Fra 1830 til 1915 blev Danmark fundamentalt forandret. Det var selvfølgelig ikke noget nyt, at der skete forandringer, men tempoet var nyt og stort set alt blev ændret fra landets styre og økonomi til det enkelte menneskes drømme og krop. Alle livets sfærer fra sex og troen på gud til den personlige frihed oplevede moderne gennembrud.

Vi er blevet større, tungere - og sundere. Men kulturelt har bekymringen for de store kroppe aldrig fyldt mere. Professor Anne Løkke holder i dag sin tiltrædelsesforelæsning på Københavns Universitet om »Fedme i historisk perspektiv - sundhedsmæssige, sociale og kulturelle konsekvenser af overvægt og undervægt«

Udgivelsesdato: December

Udgivelsesdato: December

Den humanistiske forsknings klassiske publikationsgenrer bør ikke sættes i bås som enten forskning eller formidling, men har netop sin samfundsmæssige betydning som dobbeltform. Udgivelsesdato: maj