Content warning: depictions of abuse and mistreatment towards the disabled and ableism
On Wednesday, April 17, the University of Connecticut’s Humanities Institute sponsored a seminar on Mansfield Training School, or now known as the UConn Depot Campus, by contributors to the Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum research project.
Heather Cossano, an assistant director of digital humanities & media arts at the University of Connecticut, introduced the research group’s presentation, saying how personal the project was to her. The research project on the Mansfield Training School began in February of 2022.
The research group consists of Ally LeMaster, Ashten Vassar, professor of english Brenda Brueggemann, Collin Lamontagne, Jess Gallagher, Madison Bigelow, Paula Mock, Lillian Stockford and Matthew Iannantuoni. They introduced themselves, their majors, the specific role they play in the research project and their interests which ranged from institutionalized ableism and the restrictions of rights for disabled people to how medical education has roots in eugenics. They also took a moment to thank influences such as the Humanities Institute for funding the project, Cassano, people the group had important conversations with and Jay Dolmage, who authored the book “Academic Ableism.”
The seminar began by showing the audience a traveling poster board exhibit funded by the Humanities Institute meant to educate audiences on the Mansfield Training School.
The speakers started talking about the origins of Mansfield Training School: a splinter from several failed attempts in the 1850s to build a hospital. Dr. Henry M. Knight, founder of Mansfield Training School, wanted to make a house for “feeble-minded patients,” thus one of its former names “Connecticut Training School for the Feeble-Minded at Lakeville.”
“It kind of starts as a philanthropic venture and a religious venture,” Vassar said. The name “Mansfield Training School and Hospital” was also used to title the facilities.
During the brunt of the influenza epidemic of 1918 to 1919, “There was a lack of preparedness and only one physician” in Mansfield Training School according to Lamontagne, leading to 200 cases and 30 deaths in the occupational therapy facility.
UConn and Mansfield Training School formed a friendly relationship in the 1960s according to Brueggemann. A lot of psychological experiments and trials by UConn’s faculty were done on the patients in Mansfield Training School because they were close. An example is Dr. David Zeeman’s research on ADHD and experimental psychology. When under investigation, Vassar said there were over 40 health and safety violations found. Later, a low-security prison was established on Mansfield Training School grounds, which led to a growth of concerns for the patients’ safety.
After a court case and arduously expressed concern, Mansfield Training School officially closed in 1993. Roger D. MacNamara, former superintendent of Mansfield Training School, celebrated this by writing an op-ed article titled “The Mansfield Training School Is Closed: The Swamp Has Been Finally Drained.”
On the topic of the legacy of Mansfield Training School, Bigelow said “Mansfield was kind of used as a case study.” LeMaster said “It’s part of the National History Registrar and it’s slowly deteriorating. I drive by it every day on my way to UConn.” They provided a link to their website and spoke of a high school curriculum in progress.
The audience wrote down what topics they were most interested in from a list of 10 items, all of which were artifacts or topics about Mansfield Training School. Among the list were eugenics discourse across institutions, spoiled dairy products shipped to Mansfield Training School from UConn and the “take a resident home” program between Mansfield Training School and UConn, — the residents in question being those from Mansfield Training School. The following were selected.
There was this narrative that the patients wouldn’t survive without MTS but the institution wouldn’t have existed without the labor of the patients,
Member of the research team
In former UConn president Homer Babbidge’s 50th anniversary of Mansfield Training School address, he said “By the simple act of acknowledging [disability] as a problem they ‘opened up the doors and let the sunshine in.’” One of the members of the research project said, “When UC Health was created we see Babbidge say ‘Why should we send staff to MTS when we have UConn Health.’”
Brueggemann informed the audience that Babbidge was disabled himself, being blind in one eye. “Babbidge changed the way deaf education was taught” with the Babbidge Report, which criticized oral education for deaf students. Babbidge was on record “Publicly acknowledging that disability is a problem and not something we should accept. We were surprised to know this based on the Babbidge Report.”
Vassar emphasized the importance of accepting and embracing disability, instead of labeling it as a problem as Babbidge did.
Some audience members asked what a training school was, to which the speakers introduced the topic of occupational therapy, or exploitation via the teaching of manual labor for therapy. Women were supposed to wash and iron the clothes and there was a large output of candles, they noted. “UConn was profiting off of occupational therapy in the guise” that they were helping people according to Vassar.
The first step in accountability is publicly recognizing the wrongdoing. Spring Valley Student Farm partook in outsourcing labor from Mansfield Training School, and it has a plaque acknowledging only those who were epileptic who did occupational therapy on the farm, acknowledging it as occupational therapy. Still, these acknowledgments can appear ineffective like land acknowledgments according to Vassar. “There was this narrative that the patients wouldn’t survive without MTS but the institution wouldn’t have existed without the labor of the patients,” a member of the research project said.
“The Jimmy File” is an account written by Charlotte Meryman about Jimmy Lundquist who was institutionalized at Mansfield Training School. The speakers noted that many of the files documenting Mansfield Training School patient experiences have been redacted. “While it could protect them, censorship makes another layer of silence,” Vassar said.
A video was played where archived files for Mansfield Training School were shown. Many of the files were restricted although some were publicly available.
Vassar said “What I find most haunting is how people were silenced and institutionalized but people want something paranormal” to draw them in. People don’t talk about stigmatized topics such as the abuse and neglect that occurred at Mansfield Training School enough according to him.
There was then a short Q&A session. An audience member asked how the university should handle the Depot Campus if its plans to build a housing project on that land. “There definitely should be a memorial,” Brueggemann said.
“Our biggest fear is forgetting,” Vassar said.
A reception followed with food and posters on how institutions and others treat those with disabilities were on display for the audience to observe.