Funny how that unisex bowl haircut has been in and out of style so many times over the years. The kid second from the right could've just as easily been photographed in the 1950s, the '70s or even today.

A common theme in most Shorpy pictures of the "underprivileged" or "disadvantaged," or the generally very poor, is that there was no cynicism about having aspirations to better your lot. When and why did simple reportage become voyeurism? Contemporary pictures from Romanian orphanages, etc., just feel prurient. This picture is optimistic, isn't it? Or is it just the passage of time.

It's interesting that many cities had both foundling homes and orphanages. Maybe because the kids in orphanages could be of any age, but the foundling tots were babies and toddlers. Once they reached a certain age, were they sent off to the orphanage?

That's because the terror to her left took her doll. The kid on top with the man is playing it smart.

for Best Comment Title, I would nominate "Charge of the Tyke Brigade."

Humor being more important than history, it would surely beat out, the more apt: "Pickett's Charges"

George E. Pickett III was the grandson of the Civil War general of Pickett's Charge fame. It looks like he is wearing a short platform or stilt.

http://www.pickettsociety.com/perpetuity.html

Although the teeter-totter [You mean the slide? Or the rocker-thing? - Dave] looks far from safe and that child in the back of the line looks extremely distressed, I love everything that is happening in this picture. The child three back on the slide looks almost exactly like I did when I was little.

And is that man's right leg shorter than his other? What is he standing on?

I didn't know what a foundling was, and I know everything. "An abandoned child of unknown parentage." Now I know more than everything.