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“Feebleminded family,” 1946

men in file outside black white photograph disability history america

Eugenic ideas reflected fears about the decline of Euro-American culture, among other things. In this image, six barefoot young people pose with an adult. The children appear to have developmental or cognitive disabilities and would have been interpreted as genetic failures. 

Francis Curtis, Everyday Biology (Boston: Ginn and Co., 1946) p. 612.