Treating the ‘idiot’ child in early 20th‐century Ontario

Abstract

The late 19th and early 20th centuries witnessed the widespread construction of institutions for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Consequently, most historical research into the history of intellectual disability has focused on medical interventions performed inside these quasi‐medical institutions. Recently, however, there has been new interest in community options that existed at the same time and the way in which community care and formal institutions interacted. This paper explores these issues in the context of early 20th century Canada. It will demonstrate that families of ‘idiot’ children sought different types of treatments and care in order to remedy their child's behavioural difficulties and learning delays. In many cases, families resorted to applying for their child's admission to the then largest ‘idiot’ institution in Canada, the Orillia Asylum. However, these admissions often occurred after lengthy and often exhaustive attempts by families to find alternatives to the institution and, indeed, to formal medical treatment.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Shail Rawal for editorial assistance. Jessa Chupik's doctoral research funding was made possible by generous scholarships from Associated Medical Services (Hannah Doctoral Scholarship) and the Friends of the Archives at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Lil Hewton Memorial Bursary).

Notes

1. The names of patients and their family members have been changed to pseudonyms as required by the researcher's access agreement with the Archives of Ontario. References and initializations will be listed thus: AO (Archives of Ontario)/HRC (Huronia Regional Centre, formerly the Orillia Asylum), Box number/File Number, date.

2. Historical terminology used to describe individuals whom would be classified today as intellectually disabled range from ‘idiots’, ‘imbeciles’, ‘morons’ and the ‘feeble‐minded’. The ‘feeble‐minded’ in Canada described the general range of ‘mental defectives’ (‘idiots’ to ‘morons’) but was also used for individuals classified as ‘morally defective’ – including immigrants and women.

3. In the 1860s the Orillia site was temporarily used as a ‘branch’ asylum for the large, provincial asylum for ‘lunatics’ in Toronto.