Main Conent

Outside

Everyone is somewhere.

color illustration deaf school disability history america

Social expectations about citizenship, health, and disability motivated 19th-century reformers and politicians to create asylums, hospitals, and residential schools. The buildings were often a point of pride for local communities and a tourist site, worthy of postcard recognition. The postcards also served as positive public relations, such as this one from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind in which sweet children and attentive teachers play games. The existence of so many postcards from so many places indicates the extent to which people accepted institutions as mundane and uncontroversial.