Victims of Railroad Accidents
In President Benjamin Harrison’s first message to Congress in 1889, he noted that in the year prior, 2,000 railroad employees had been killed on the job and an additional 20,000 injured. “It is a reproach to our civilization,” he remarked, “that any class of American workmen should in the pursuit of a necessary and useful vocation be subjected to life and limb as great as that of a soldier in wartime.” In the decades after the extension of rail lines across both Great Britain and the United States, a number of authorities became concerned about the frequency and severity of railway accidents. This 1866 pamphlet, Railway Accidents or Collisions: their Effects upon the Nervous System, by a Scottish physician, outlines potential after-effects (notably hysteria) that have been exhibited by victims of rail accidents.
Many who suffered severe accidents that left them permanently impaired were given new jobs with the same employer – almost always at a lower wage – but a number of physically disabled laborers were unable to find work, and thus became beggars. Some wrote touching poetry about their story that would inspire sympathy, as seen in these examples by J.M. Paterson, Jno W. Brady, and an anonymous man who lost his arm in a railroad accident.
Laura Bridgman
Laura Bridgman was born to a farming family in New Hampshire in 1829. Before the age of two, a case of scarlet fever rendered her deafblind. Her case came to the attention of Samuel Gridley Howe, founder of the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, who brought her to the institution just before her eighth birthday. Shortly thereafter, Bridgman became something of a celebrity, due to Howe’s publication of his methods to teach her communication in the institution’s annual reports, first mentioned in the 6th Annual Report for 1838. Charles Dickens also visited the school during his tour of the United States in 1842, and wrote about Laura in his American Notes; reportedly, Helen Keller’s mother later read about Bridgman in Dickens and was thereby inspired to seek out education for her own deafblind daughter at Perkins.
This account of Bridgman’s life, written by Howe’s daughters several years after her death, details Bridgman’s daily life, her education, and friendships with several teachers at the institute. Bridgman was also the subject of several psychological and physiological studies on the deaf and blind during and after her life, as long-held beliefs about the relationship between psychological development and the senses had led many scientists to conclude that those with deafblindness must also experience intellectual or emotional impairments (Bridgman had long served as evidence to the contrary). See for example:
- Henry Donaldson, “Anatomical Observations on the Brain and Several Sense-Organs of the Blind Deaf-Mute, Laura Dewey Bridgman,” The American Journal of Psychology Vol. III no. 3 (Sept. 1890), p. 293-342.
- Frederick Tilney, “A Comparative Sensory Analysis of Helen Keller and Laura Bridgman,” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry Vol. 21 no. 6 (June 1929), p. 1227-1269.
Fraternal Societies and Disability Insurance
In the era before Social Security and Medicaid, fraternal organizations often offered dues-paying members insurance in the event of their death or for an illness or injury that prevented them from working. The Order of the Maccabees, as this pamphlet demonstrates, recruited new members by providing statistics on the size of its membership and its record of prompt payouts for claims. Although the Maccabees was originally founded as a social organization in which members were expected to participate in meetings and rituals, attendance at these events was reportedly scarce. Membership requirements reflected late-nineteenth century notions of social hierarchies as well as medical risks: it was open to all “white persons of sound bodily health and good moral character, who are socially acceptable, between 18 and 70 years of age.” Those employed in hazardous occupations were assessed additional membership fees, and people involved in occupations such as blasting, coal mining, or as electrical linemen were ineligible. In 1962, the Maccabees reorganized as the Maccabees Mutual Life Insurance Company; they demutualized and sold to another insurance firm in the 1990s.
The Book of Deaf-Mute Signs
This small pamphlet with diagrams of sign language gives a small window on how deafness was popularly understood. The publisher cites authorities in Paris, New York, and Australia as sources, and introduces the reader to the Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Épée, who established the first free school for the deaf in Paris in the 1760s. This text is targeted at the hearing who might wish to communicate with the deaf, inviting them to imagine what life might be like if they suddenly lost the ability to hear. The appearance of a popular text in 1900, moreover, indicates the persistence of the use of sign languages despite on-going controversy among educators regarding the teaching lipreading and articulation over sign language (some schools went so far as to forbid students to sign during school hours). See for example: Arthur Hartman, Deafmutism and the Education of Deaf-Mutes by Lip-Reading and Articulation, trans. James Patterson Cassells (London, 1881), especially chapter XI onwards.
American Journal of Care for Cripples
The American Journal of Care for Cripples was in publication from 1914 until 1919, by the Federation of Association for Cripples. Like many such aid societies, this was founded by interested lay people – not medical professionals. The Federation and its publication exemplified the prevailing belief that vocational training for the physically and mentally handicapped was the best form of aid. The Journal chiefly ran articles describing schools and training programs available and the methods they used, and articles reflected prevailing views of disease and disability of the day. This image shows a class on making rattan furniture at the Trade School of the Hospital of Hope; many courses offered at these institutions focused on handicrafts.
1944 Congressional Hearings on Aid to the Physically Handicapped
Towards the end of World War II, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Labor launched an investigation into the availability of support to the physically handicapped. Across several hearings, the committee invited testimony from federal, state, and private agencies to determine the character and extent of assistance that was extended to the disabled, how widely available such aid was, and what employment opportunities existed for the physically handicapped. Five hearings on specific topics were held: aid available to the blind, poliomyelitis, the deaf and hard of hearing, federal aid programs already existent, and orthopedic impairments. Three location-specific hearings were held in New York City, Pittsburg, and Detroit – all cities with large industrial sectors. The 1,138 pages generated by the hearings contain exhibits and testimony that demonstrate the range of disability experiences and how Americans coped. The chart above, taken from the seventh session on orthopedic impairments, demonstrates a common critique: educational programs for the disabled were all too often geared specifically towards vocational education, and therefore provided little assistance to children under the age of 16.
For researchers’ convenience, links to the eight volumes of testimony are provided here:
- Part 1: Aid to the Blind, Washington, D.C., August 29-31 and September 1, 6, & 7, 1944
- Part 2: Aid to Victims of Poliomyelitis, Washington, D.C., September 8, 1944
- Part 3: Aid to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Washington, D.C., Sept. 12-14, 1944
- Part 4: Hearings in New York City, October 2-4, 1944
- Part 5: Hearings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 17-18, 1944
- Part 6: Hearings in Detroit, Michigan, October 19-20, 1944
- Part 7: Federal Aid to the Physically Handicapped, Washington, D.C., November 27-30, 1944
- Part 8: Aid to Victims of Orthopedic Impairments, to Disabled Seamen, Etc. Washington, D.C., December 5-6, 1944
1965: Year of Legislative Achievements for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare
1965 was a noteworthy year for U.S. federal legislation: The Voting Rights Act and Medicare Amendment to the Social Security Act both passed, and President Lyndon Johnson announced his administration’s agenda, known as the Great Society, of which health and welfare was a key component. A comprehensive booklet published by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare enumerated twenty-nine new public laws that placed “vast new responsibilities” on DHEW. Five of those specifically addressed the needs of the disabiled: the Mental Health Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act; the National Technical Institute for the Deaf Act; the Captioned Films for the Deaf Act; several Social Security Amendments that expanded provisions for the disabled; and the Vocational Rehabilitation Act Amendments. Additionally, provisions in other bills also sought to identify and address issues of access in public services. For example, Title III of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided funds for supplementary services, such as hearing tests provided to elementary school children (pictured above).
Guidebook for Parents
As the foreword to this reference points out, new parents are often unprepared for the challenges of raising children, but help and advice for them is readily available. Parents of children with mental, physical, or emotional disabilities are similarly unprepared, but historically have had fewer resources available. This volume, compiled by staff and members of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Association for Retarded Citizens, provided abstracts on hundreds of books and contact information for support services, in order to provide parents with the most up-to-date and relevant information. The work also includes illustrations by one author’s child. Like many resources for the disabled, help came from those affected, although the authors of this particular volume, published in 1976, were likely also influenced by the do-it-yourself and self-help trends of the era.
Note: bibliographies and reference texts for those with disabilities became increasingly common in the 1970s; see for example, Barrier Free Design: A Selected Bibliography (1973) written by Peter Lassen, Architectural Coordinator of Paralyzed Veterans of America, or the 1976 Directory of National Information Sources on Handicapping Conditions and Related Services. Sources such as these may be of value to researchers as points of departure.
Responding to Disability: A Question of Attitude
Following along the lines of the DIY-influenced guides for parents of children with disabilities, some groups saw the need to provide better education on disabilities to the non-disabled. This instructional pamphlet was produced by the Minnesota State Council for the Handicapped (now the Minnesota Council on Disability) and was designed to help people without disabilities to consider carefully their attitudes and assumptions about those with disabilities. It presents a series of scenarios and invites the reader to choose from a set of responses they might have to a given situation – for example, how would you respond to a person using a wheelchair who offered your rejection of assistance? The answer key at the back gives the correct response in each scenario with discussion of how your actions might be interpreted.
Statistics on Gender and Disability
Disability is a broad category and the impairments or conditions considered to be disabilities have changed over time. The experience of disability has likewise varied over the course of modern history. As the authors of this volume note, “the new paradigm of disability emphasizes the person with a disability acting in the environment and dealing with various opportunities and barriers in making life choices and achieving individual goals” (from Forward). These researchers pointed to the ways in which gender impacted individuals with disabilities, and sought to make data available that could help to change policies and attitudes in order to ensure equality of opportunity for all.