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Primary source: Margaret Sanger, "The Mammals and Their Children," magazine article, 1911.
Caption: Margaret Sanger became a nationally famous social reformer. Here she teaches children about mammals.
The first question one of the boys asked was, "What is a mammal?" and it was explained to the children that a mammal is an animal with a hairy covering, who breathes with lungs, and has warm or quick circulating blood.. . .
They were told of the freedom of the animals in choosing their mates -- that beauty and strength seemed the greatest qualifications. The story of the bees was briefly told. How the queen bee leaves her home amidst the hundreds of male bees who are all anxious to be the father of the future hive. How she rambles about for a little while, then up she flies -- up, up, straight into the clouds with hundreds of male bees following. Gradually the weakest bees drop off and return, but the stronger ones still follow until there are often only two male bees left in the race. The weaker of the two returns and the strongest bee of the whole hive wins the queen bee, and fertilizes the eggs within her body. After this act of reproduction he dies, and Mrs. Bee returns to her hive and lays thousands of bee eggs. The strongest gave his life that the future bees should be given his great strength.
The children were sad about this. They wanted the strongest to live, and it was now the place to teach them of their own bodies, what cleanliness and strength means to the future race of man. . .
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"The Mammals and Their Children," in The Sunday New York Call, (10 December 1911), 15; reprinted as chapter 6 of What Every Mother Should Know: Or How Six Little Children Were Taught the Truth, 3rd ed. (New York: Truth, 1921).
Courtesy of the Margaret Sanger Papers Project, History Department, New York University.
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