Everyone is somewhere.
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.
Image Gallery
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The main building at the State Institute for Deaf and Dumb. The school opened in 1856, commissioned by the state legislature.
The buildings and walkway at the Cherokee State Hospital. The hospital opened in 1902.
The main building at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. The asylum, opened in 1829, was also a vocational training school. This postcard was mailed in 1911.
The new main building of the Veterans Administration Hospital. Part of the post-war initiative to care for injured soldiers, the hospital opened in 1950.
The main building and long, screened pavilion of the Tuberculosis Society Hospital. Constant rest and exposure to fresh air were essential in TB treatment. This postcard was mailed in 1917.
The lake and main buildings at the State Hospital, opened in 1890. This postcard was mailed in 1941.
The asylum buildings and rolling lawn at the Lancaster County Home. Massive brick or stone buildings such as these were often the most significant structures in town.
The row of buildings at the State Hospital. The hospital was organized and opened in the 1870s, a few years after Nebraska became a state in 1867.
Cabins, palm trees, cliffs, and ocean at the United States Leprosarium. People with Hansen’s disease were quarantined on Molokai beginning in the 1860s. The Belgian priest Father Damien worked there. The United States government facility opened in 1905.
Main building at the Perkins School for the Blind. Samuel Gridley Howe opened the school in 1832.
Brick buildings and lawn at the Virginia State School for Colored Deaf and Blind Children. The school opened in 1908 and closed in 2008. This postcard was mailed in 1918.
Tree-lined entrance driveway and main building at the School for the Blind, Lansing, Michigan. The school operated in Lansing from 1880 to 1995, when it reunited with the Michigan School for the Deaf in Flint.
Driveway, flowering shrubs, and main building at the Shriner's Hospital for Crippled Children. Opened in 1922, this was the first of twenty-two charity hospitals the Shriners built.
Main building and lawn at the Shriner’s Hospital for Crippled Children. Shriners opened this facility in 1924. They began as a secret, fraternal order in 1872, organized by Masons in New York City.
Building that housed the “female department” of the State Hospital. Opened in 1853, Stockton was the first psychiatric facility in California.
Stucco building at the winter quarters for the Tanglewood Boarding School for Handicapped Children.