The experience of a 'weak and sick childhood' far from home: the experience of the Maritime Asylum, Mar del Plata (1893-1920)

The objective of this work is to analyze the daily life of 'tubercular children'" coming from the city of Buenos Aires. They were hospitalized in the Maritime Asylum located in the seaside city of Mar del Plata, 400 kilometers from the capital. In 1893, in the Charitable Society of the Federal Capital, the idea arose of founding a hospital and maritime asylum for children ill with osseous tuberculosis in general, weak and convalescing children and the treatment of patients with extra-pulmonary tuberculosis. This paper attempts to advance the understanding of two inter-related topics: on the one hand, the characteristics of the institutionalized meddling of the Charitable Society, and, on the other, the experience that these tubercular children had in this institution.