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Volume 1, No. 3
October 10, 2017
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Can Disability History Help Cut Through The Noise?
Over the spring and summer, we concentrated on health insurance history. Lately, it has been eugenics history and its US manifestations. This topic has never been central in popular culture discussions or analysis, though a few new books about the Supreme Court's 1927 decision concerning sterilization laws and on the influence of conservative views in the Progressive era legal environment have recently made the rounds of "notable" book and radio reviewing venues. Nonetheless today's immigration debate, the "moron" insult, and the rising influence of white supremacist groups have deep roots in this misdirected scientific enterprise of our shared past. We’ve been posting about this and plan to continue our efforts into the fall.
We use Facebook, but write long for that medium. We have over 3,000 plus followers, and they often engage. We know our audience is largely NOT in the academic community, though a substantial number are connected to special education in various ways or are people with disabilities. 10% are international followers, and a little more than 50% are females between the ages of 30-65. This last metric is interesting because www.disabilitymuseum.org web traffic is more than 50% male and its audience is largely in the 18-35 age range.
We fuss over how to illustrate our posts. The image-link below is how we illustrated a piece about Molly McCully Brown, a contemporary poet with a new work based on the Virginia Colony for the Epileptic and Feeble Minded. A different post gave our FB audience a link to a classic Doug Baynton's essay and a 19th century cartoon useful for teaching about deep seated anti-semitic stereotypes and US immigration. Most recently, we've discussed the origins of the word "moron".
We have significant reach with these posts! And we think they do cut through the noise. If your would like to work with us as partners, writers, editors, or if you have disability history topics pertinent to contemporary debates you think should be explored, do send a note. Inquiries can be made to Nate Christy.
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Images: Left: 1913 map of USA showing status of sterilization laws in the lower 48 states/territories at that time--Courtesy Truman State University. Right: BW Photo--Carrie Buck and her mother sit outdoors, facing camera, side by side, dressed in ordinary clothing. Courtesy: State University New York-Albany.
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A Call For Interns:
Do those of you in higher education have any students who would like to intern in the spring semester? Or, do you want to test the waters and see if your students can develop content based disability history posts? It takes a surprising amount of work to produce them, and we would be delighted to talk further with any of you who might have available students, and/or the capacity to supervise students in this endeavor. At the moment this is an unpaid position.
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Step By Step
Again, the Becoming Helen Keller project is pleased to give a shout out to another generous supporter! The Harris-Mathews Charitable Family Foundation has committed $30,000 to the project bringing the balance we need to finish this work down again. We are hard at work trying to close the budget gap on this innovative two hour film project for the American Masters PBS series.
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Photo: BW: At the Chaplin Studios film set in California, 1918, from right to left: Polly Thomson, Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller with her right hand on Anne's lips and her left hand on Charles Chaplin's shoulder. All are seated, all have hats, Helen and Anne also have fur stoles.
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Disability History/Archives Consortium
You can check out the latest issue of the Disability History Archives Consortium's newsletter. We are working with their outreach team to develop a masthead. The idea is to craft a collage composed from the many disability magazines and newsletters that have come and gone over two plus centuries here in the USA. If know of titles you think are essential and if you have some newsletters or magazines in your personal collection send DH/AC a digital image. To send images or request to receive the newsletter, contact Micheal Hudson at the American Printing House for the Blind.
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What's been included in the image to date? The Mentor, The Opal, Disability Studies Quarterly, The Polio Chronicle, CarryOn, The Silent Worker, The Mouth, The Disability Rag, The Rights Tenet, Paralyzed Veterans of America.
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Professional Development Workshops:
K-12 Accessing Inquiry & Disability History Primary Source Materials.
Our partners at the Collaborative for Education Services are running professional development workshops about using disability history primary source material in middle and high school classrooms. These two events are already "full" , but contact Richard Cairn if you are interested in scheduling an event this spring or summer: Can I book an Accessing Inquiry workshop in my district? YES! Contact rcairn@collaborative.org.
- October 19 and November 16 - Hudson High School - "Accessing Inquiry for Students with Disabilities through Primary Sources" - 22.5 PDPs or 1 grad credit in History.
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SAVE THIS DATE: November 2, 2017
@ THIS PLACE: Springfield, Ma: Springfield Museums
Museum's A La Carte, Lunch Lecture Series.
"Anne Sullivan’s Massachusetts 1870-1920: Pluck, Luck, & Sorrow" , a talk by Laurie Block, www.disabilitymuseum.org founder and Becoming Helen Keller project producer.
https://springfieldmuseums.org/program/anne-sullivans-massachusetts-1870-1920-disability-poverty-economic-independence-advocacy/
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