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History of Social Welfare Policies & Programs Up to the 1930s

This guide focuses on resources that you can use when seeking information on the history of social welfare policies and programs in the U.S. up to the 1930s.

Target Populations: The Mentally Disabled

"A Short History of the Treatment of Persons With Mental Retardation,"
David Goode. IN "And Now Let's Build a Better World": The Story of the Association for the Help of Retarded Children, New York City 1948-1998. New York, AHRC, 1998. Chapter 1, pp.6-17.
Disability History Museum
"Our collections - Documents and Visual Stills - are associated with the cultural and social history of people with disabilities across the lifespan and diagnosis categories. The records here illuminate everyday practices, dominant ideologies, and alternative perspectives...Most, but not all, of the Collections' records were produced in the United States from 1800 to the present."
Excerpt from "Committee Report: Stimulating Public Interest in the Feeble-Minded,"
E. R. Johnstone. Proceedings of National Conference Charities and Correction 1916, 205-215.
"The Surgical Treatment of Habitual Criminals, Imbeciles, Perverts, Paupers, Morons, Epileptics, and Degenerates,"
Albert J. Ochsner. Annals of Surgery 82(3), September 1925, 321-325.
The Presidential Address delivered before the American Surgical Association, May 4, 1925.