This guide contains a variety of online and print resources to help researchers navigate the varied disability materials held in the Minnesota Historical Society collection. The guide is divided into the following categories: Overview of Research Guide (including a harmful language statement, an overview of disability concepts, and tips on navigating the research guide), Terminology Glossary, Advocacy and Organizations, Legal Subjects and Reform, State Institution Records, Oral Histories, Universal Design, and Accessing the Library.
The resources highlighted as "Best Bets" within this guide are meant to be a starting point for researching each topic or as a quick reference point for researchers already familiar with the collections. When starting research with the "Best Bets", there are suggested search terms for use in the library and archive catalog on each page to aid you in finding additional materials. This guide was created as an evolving research aid and as more research and resources become available, they will be added to it. The goal is to keep this guide as up-to-date and relevant as possible, in order to help facilitate important research and discussion within the disability community and disability research in general.
Many individuals identify as part of multiple disability communities. No disability is a monolith and many people find their identity intersecting within different communities. When using terminology in this guide, it is acknowledged that people in each community have their own unique identities based on individual preferences.
Views on disabilities have changed greatly over time in Minnesota. Please note that the library has resources pertaining to many of these viewpoints and time periods. Please read the Harmful Language Statement below for more information.
This guide is organized by the type of organization or group the record belongs to, not any particular type of disability. This reflects the reality that disabilities are unique to the individual and rarely fit into neat categories.
Research guides are not meant to be an exhaustive list of sources about a particular aspect of disability studies (the study of the historical, political, social, and cultural aspects of disability). It is a starting point, giving researchers the most used sources as identified by the librarians, terms that may be used for further searching, and suggestions on sources outside of this library.
It can be challenging to research disability history because of changes in language as well as shifting societal attitudes and understandings of disability over time. A glossary of terminology that provides historical and outdated terms that may be encountered within these records as well as suggestions of modern equivalents is included. Terms may refer to medical diagnoses that today are no longer considered relevant or accurate, and many records may describe individuals who did not self-identify with the labels given to them.
The definition of disability, and the identification of individuals with that label, has changed throughout history, so many records that may be regarded as pertaining to "disability studies" today may not be labelled as such in the catalog. Therefore, a simple search under "disability" may not yield the fullest or best result. To aid with additional source discovery, each page of the guide offers suggestions for both general search terms and the more specific terms used today by the Library of Congress Subject Headings.
This guide is broken into the following pages:
Timeline and Core Concepts - a general overview of some concepts, models of disability, and prominent themes in American history for persons with all types of disabilities.
Terminology Glossary - a general resource for terms used throughout history and a brief explanation of some of the overarching "models of disability" used throughout time to categorize and understand the topic.
Advocacy and Organizations: Intellectual/Developmental and Mental/Behavioral Disabilities - best resources that this library holds for historical organizations and advocacy groups who focus on these broad types of disabilities.
Advocacy and Organizations: Sensory and Physical/Motor Disabilities - best resources that this library holds for historical organizations and advocacy groups who focus on these broad types of disabilities.
Legal Subjects and Reform - a timeline of reform milestones regarding disability rights and some specific suggestions for resources about some of these milestones in Minnesota. For generalized legislative or court research see the library's Legislative History Research How-to Guide or Court Records How-to Research Guide.
State Hospital Records - sources about the institutions themselves and the system of institutionalized care for the mentally ill in Minnesota history. For records about a specific patient, see the library's Historic Patient Records Research Guide.
State Schools - sources about the state schools for children (and some adults) with developmental and physical disabilities. This includes Faribault Schools for the Deaf and Blind.
Oral Histories - guide page under construction for the new Disability Oral History Project coming soon.
Universal Design - resources pertaining to the changing of design concepts, especially regarding physical barriers to those with disabilities
Accessing the Library - resources for making your visit to the library comfortable and successful for all.
This library research guide will not use a medical model of disability, though that cultural framework is used extensively in our collections (see the box below for a full definition of the different models of disability). Instead, this guide focuses on the organization or type of record, regardless of the disability(s). We acknowledge that there are many variations of disability, and not everyone may identify themselves as disabled. The researcher will find, however, that the medical model of disability is used in many of the records created by organizations focusing solely on what was considered medically 'abnormal' in the cultural context of the time. This model does not address the whole person or how they identify themselves, and is not meant to imply anything about or label those individuals within the records.
The definition of disability has varied widely throughout history, created by the individual words, laws, and customs of the specific society and time period. While modern identity and person-first language is used throughout this guide, historic, and potentially offensive, language may appear in titles and the sources themselves. This language may inform the researcher about societal attitudes and assumptions being made at the time the record was created, and does not reflect the attitudes or opinions of the Minnesota Historical Society Library or its staff.
The search terms suggested come from the Library of Congress Subject Headings, which provide consistent description and points of access to records. These subject headings, while reviewed by the wider library community, are changed only by a slow process, and focus primarily on the older medical model of disability usage. As a result, our subject headings, and this guide, also use language derived from the medical model of disability, which may not reflect contemporary understandings of disability and changing language. Using these headings allows for greater discoverability of disability history materials, especially with newer collections that are identified as such.
The language regarding disabilities and chronic conditions continues to change with our understanding of self-identification and personhood, and some individuals or groups may not agree with our current usages. Different individuals and groups have different viewpoints about what is considered respectful or appropriate language, and those differences are respected. The language used here may be considered outdated very quickly, or not at all, and those changes are a part of the history this institution was founded to collect and make accessible to all.
Gale Family Library
Minnesota Historical Society Library
Located on the Second Floor of the Minnesota History Center
345 West Kellogg Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55102
Library Hours:
Thursday to Saturday: 10am to 4pm
Sunday to Wednesday: Closed
More Information on Visiting the Library
Contact Us:
651-259-3300
Kerri Teske, Reference Librarian
Anne Thayer, Reference Librarian
