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"They was mean to me. And I'm glad I'm not in an institution no more.” Beth was sent to an Indiana institution when she was young. She didn’t have the opportunity to go to school but states she learned to write and do math. After leaving Muscatatuck…

“It was the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.” In the 1970s, Bonnie Smith was having difficulties providing care at home for her adolescent son Brooks. After seeking assistance, it was determined Brooks would go to Indiana's Madison State Hospital.…

"You don't train people to get ready to go out in the community; you take a risk and let them go and see where their strengths are." From 1973 through 1976, the Deinstitututionalization Project gave residents at Muscatatuck State Developmental Center…

For children with disabilities before the 1970s and '80s, "a lot of them, I think [the Muscatatuck institution] would be the only chance for any education at all." In local communities, "they weren't invited to the school, they were invited not to be…

Erika Steuterman visited the Indiana State Archive in 2013, as a way to face the difficult memories of visiting her older brother at Central State Hospital (Indianapolis) in the 1960s and 1970s. In this video, Erika shares some of those memories, and…

In 1887 Indiana state legislators enacted a law providing for the establishment of the Indiana School for Feeble Minded Youth in Fort Wayne, one of the first institutions in the nation serving people with intellectual/developmental disabilities.…

An article headlined "Governor Vows Changes at New Castle" appeared on the front page of the Logansport Pharos Tribune on May 7, 1997. Governor Frank O'Bannon visited the New Castle State Developmental Center on May 6, 1997 after an Indianapolis…

Dr. Harry Clay Sharp, a prison physician in Jeffersonville, Indiana, was influential in the movement to enact eugenics legislation in Indiana and nationally. He advocated vasectomies as a way to prevent the transmission of "degenerate" traits.…

An historical marker observing the centenary of Indiana’s 1907 landmark sterilization law, and acknowledging Indiana's role in the sterilization of its institutionalized citizens. The marker is located at the Indiana State Library in…

The photo depicts an alumnae reunion at the Indiana State School for the Deaf in Indianapolis on May 29, 1908.
Text in photo:
"Cirkut photo by C. F. Bretzman and Orson Archibald, 6 inch Cirkut"
"Alumni reunion, Ladies' Group, Indiana State…