The Fresh Air Fund and the Floating Hospital were two charities that launched in Gilded Age New York City and flourished during the Progressive Era. Part of the fresh air charity movement, both organizations argued that impoverished children living in crowded tenement districts needed fresher air. But these reformers had strikingly different notions of what fresh air was and where to find it. The Floating Hospital cast fresh air as medicine that children could breathe in the city’s harbor, but urban air could never be fresh to the Fresh Air Fund. Using fresh air as a symbol of rural wholesomeness in contrast to urban deviance, the organization aimed to mold children into model citizens by exposing them to the countryside. Diverging ideas about cities and air impacted children’s experiences, determining whether charities treated them equally regardless of race or sex and whether reformers respected or tried to break familial bonds.

Fresh Air Fund 和 Floating Hospital 是两个在镀金时代纽约市发起并在进步时代蓬勃发展的慈善机构。作为新鲜空气慈善运动的一部分，两个组织都认为生活在拥挤的公寓区的贫困儿童需要更新鲜的空气。但是这些改革者对新鲜空气是什么以及在哪里可以找到它有着截然不同的看法。水上医院把新鲜空气当成药丸，让孩子们在城市的港口呼吸，但城市空气对新鲜空气基金来说永远是新鲜的。该组织使用新鲜空气作为乡村健康的象征，与城市偏差形成鲜明对比，该组织旨在通过让儿童接触乡村，将他们塑造成模范公民。关于城市和空气的不同想法影响了儿童的体验，