These were popular for a while in London and New York. Wikipedia,

At the beginning of the World War II, the Battle of Britain led by the Luftwaffe ended the usage of baby cages in all London, but they appeared again from 1953, albeit not as popular as before.

Here is a baby looking what I feel is entirely too pleased about the situation,

Baby Cage

And another with what seems like a more appropriate level of distress,

7AsbtTdMtbHJJCW.jpg

EDIT to replace one suspected AI image, per suspicion from mossy_@lemmy.world in thread below.

  • jaybone@lemmy.zipEnglish
    7·
    5 days ago

    In the OP newspaper ad, it looks like they are mounted like AC units. In the second pic, it looks like they are just hanging there, wtf lol no. Like crab pots or something.

    • EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.caOPEnglish
      2·
      5 days ago

      I noticed that too. I wonder if there were multiple brands or types?

      Free hanging, I’d figure wind would be a problem, and mom or nanny would have to monitor that carefully.

    • EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.caOPEnglish
      8·
      5 days ago

      I removed one entire post I made a few weeks ago, which was from an AI source, which I didn’t know at the time I posted it.

      In this case the existence of these cages is very well attested, inc with the wikipedia info above, and many articles in reputable publications. If you have evidence one of the photos is AI, I’ll edit the post to remove that and replace it with another, since there are endless photos of these things from the era.

      • mossy_@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        5 days ago

        happy to hear it. I believe you on the existence of these cages, but the middle image is suspect. the hands don’t look right, and the way the cage hangs on the o-ring at the top, with each strap joining at a random position, doesn’t make sense to me

        as far as evidence goes, I can do a reverse image search if you’d like but I suspect I won’t find anything you haven’t already seen

        • EnmebaraGuesser@piefed.caOPEnglish
          2·
          5 days ago

          Ah, I see what you mean. Seems to me those are enough to make the image suspect, so I’ll edit the post in a few minutes here and replace that image.

          Thanks! Btw I got to be a frequent poster a few weeks ago but I have no other association with the group, so I don’t know if there is any kind of post checking other than just having people notice things like you did here.