LibGuides: Library Resources: History: Primary Sources in Disability Studies

Background Information and Sources

This interdisciplinary list of web resources provides excellent contextual information for the history of disability. Most of the projects are sponsored by museums, archives, libraries, and other cultural heritage organizations. Many of them incorporate primary sources into their digital content. Students in HIST-199 can use these websites to learn about specific individuals, identify primary sources, and better understand the prevailing model of disability for particular eras.

Disability History Museum
The Disability History Museum hosts a Library of virtual artifacts, Education curricula, and Museum exhibits. These programs are designed to foster research and study about the historical experiences of people with disabilities and their communities.
Documenting Disability in the Historical Record
A list—by no means complete—of entities that have played an active role in documenting disability in history. Many of the resources and descriptions listed were adapted from The Disability History/Archives Consortium: A Portal to Disability History Collections White Paper. Others have been identified by members of the A&D Section.
Nineteenth-Century Disability: Cultures and Contexts
An interdisciplinary collection of primary texts and images about physical and cognitive disability in the long nineteenth century.
A History of Disability: from 1050 to the Present Day
Disability in Time and Place (historic England) reveals how disabled people's lives are integral to the heritage all around us. From leper chapels built in the 1100s to protests about accessibility in the 1980s, the built environment is inextricably linked to the stories of disabled people, hidden and well-known. This section serves as an invitation to those interested in disability or social history to explore what the historic environment has to offer. All the content has been translated into British Sign Language.
Parallels in Time A History of Developmental Disabilities
A web exhibit about the history of developmental disabilities from the The Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities.
The Social Welfare Projec t
While designed for broad public use, the site includes links and references to key archives, libraries, scholarly websites and other sources of reliable information that we hope will be useful to students, researchers and scholars studying social welfare.
The Marvelous Musical Prodigy: Thomas Greene 'Blind Tom' Wiggins
Web exhibit produced by the National Museum of African American History and Culture about Thomas Greene 'Blind Tom' Wiggins (May 25, 1849–June 14, 1908) a blind African American musical prodigy. If you are studying Thomas Wiggins for your project, I suggest also searching the New York Times Historical Database for the name "blind Tom" and limiting the results to before 1900.

Primary Sources

Below of is a list of databases that contain primary sources. Students are also encouraged to use the "Newspapers and Serials" tab to access newspaper-specific databases like the New York Times Historical database or the Cincinnati Enquirer historical database.

The Deaf-mutes' Journal
The Deaf-mutes' Journal was published weekly starting with the Nov. 5, 1874 issue and ceased publication in 1938. It was preceded by The Mexico Independent and Deaf-mutes' Journal from 1872-1874, and was succeeded by the New York Journal of the Deaf, published in White Plains, N.Y. beginning in 1938.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) This link opens in a new window
DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of the materials found through DPLA—photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so much more—are free and immediately available in digital format. The cultural institutions participating in DPLA represent the richness and diversity of America itself, from the smallest local history museum to our nation’s largest cultural institutions.
Ohio Digital Network is the Ohio Hub for materials in the DPLA. See Ohio Digital Network for more information.

Disability Studies at Yale: Special Collections and Archives
Great resource for primary sources.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new window
This database includes:
Over 136,000 titles (155,000 volumes)
Includes books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more
Based on the English Short Title Catalogue
Works published in the UK during the 18th century plus thousands from elsewhere
Primarily in English - also includes other languages, provided by Gale publishing

Internet Archive
Digitized newsletters, journals, reports and other primary source materials.
JSTOR Community Collections
Access thousands of primary sources from libraries, museums, and archives around the world.
Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins pioneered the work of education for students who are blind and deafblind, and has remained a leader in the field for more than 185 years. The Perkins Archives document both the evolution of these fields of knowledge and of the gradual inclusion of people with visual impairments into the mainstream of American life. This database contains primary sources. You can also access their collections through the Internet Archives: https://archive.org/details/perkinsschoolfortheblindrestricted
Research the Americans with Disabilities Act
National Archives records that relate to American citizens with disabilities. From personal letters to historic legislation, these records provide insight into efforts over the past century to establish programs and to protect the rights of people with disabilities.
The Silent Worker
The Silent Worker was a popular national newspaper among the deaf population of the United States during the end of the 1890's through the end of the first quarter of the 20th century. Originally known as the Deaf Mute Times, it was first published in February 1888 and renamed The Silent Worker on September 27 of the same year. The New Jersey School for the Deaf continued its publication monthly, except for July, August, and periodically September until it ceased in June 1929.
The Wellcome Collection
Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we all think and feel about health. Through exhibitions, collections, live programming, digital, broadcast and publishing, we create opportunities for people to think deeply about the connections between science, medicine, life and art. We are part of Wellcome, which supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. Wellcome supports discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and is taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate.

Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
As compelling as it is comprehensive, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers provides access to primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life, among other subjects.