Voices of Pineland

Voices of Pineland: Eugenics, Social Reform, and the Legacy of 'Feeblemindedness' in Maine by Stephen Murphy tells the story of the Maine School for the Feebleminded, later known as Pineland Hospital and Training Center. Based on an in depth analysis of annual institutional reports, newspaper clippings, legal documents, and other archival sources as well as interviews with former residents, their family members, and staff, Murphy traces the history of the Maine institution from its founding in 1908 to its eventual closure in 1996. Prior to 1908, Maine sent many of its citizens with intellectual and developmental disabilities to Massachusetts. When the state established the Maine School for the Feebleminded, it modeled it after an institution in Massachusetts that had been the first asylum for so-called 'idiots' in the United States. Murphy shows the influences of both social forces and the personalities of superintendents, elected officials, and eventually lawyers, advocates, and court officials on Pineland's history.