The Disability History Association Podcast

Coreen McGuire (Durham University) discusses her award-winning work on technology and the categorization of disability. Episode Image 1: A mosaic of health-related posters. One poster, for example, is an advertisement for Chesterfield cigarettes featuring Santa Claus. Another poster shows a shirtless man flexing his muscles, and the text reads “Healthy Looks Can Hide Tuberculosis.” Epi...

Delia Steverson (University of Florida) discusses Delores Phillips’s The Darkest Child and other intersections between disability and African American literature and history. Episode Image: The Darkest Child , by Delores Philips. The cover shows a young Black woman wearing a yellow hair bow and gold earrings. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Dr. Delia Ste...

Carolyn Speer and Jay Price (Wichita State University) discuss accessibility in the classroom and beyond. Episode Image: Pizza Hut Museum, located at Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus. The museum is a small brick building with a black roof. A modern sign in front reads “Pizza Hurt Museum: The Original Pizza Hut.” Source: wichita.edu Download mp3 file here. Download pdf...

Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy (University of New Brunswick) discusses her new book, Between Fitness and Death: Disability and Slavery in the Caribbean. Episode Image: Between Fitness and Death , by Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy. The cover features an image of a group of enslaved people, who can only be seen from the waist down. One person has fallen to the ground. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript h...

Liz Jackson and Natalie Wright discuss their Functional Fashions exhibit and other projects. Episode Image: Functional Fashions for the Physically Handicapped , by Helen Cookman and Muriel Zimmerman. The cover has red drawings of a skirt and jacket, pants and jacket, and a child’s dress. Source: Chipstone.org Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guests Liz Jackson...

Bess Williamson (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) discusses her new book on disability and design in US history. Episode Image: Cover of Accessible America by Bess Williamson. It features design drawings of ramps, tinted in bold colours like green, blue, and orange. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Dr. Bess Williamson is a historian of design and materia...

Jason Ellis (University of British Columbia) discusses his new book on the history of special education in Toronto and beyond. Episode Image: A Class by Themselves , by Jason Ellis. The cover shows a black and white photo of a boy arranging blocks on a board. A young woman in a white coat sits across the table from him, taking notes. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our...

Jen Hale, archivist at the Perkins School for the Blind, discusses the school’s history and collections. Episode Image: Exhibition of the Girls’ Manual Training Department, Perkins Institution. A group of girls sits in a circle knitting with two instructors helping. The girls wear dresses with lace collars, most have large bows in their hair, and all wear boots with laces. Source: Perk...

Natalie Lira (University of Illinois) discusses her work on eugenic sterilization, race, and reproductive justice in California. Episode Image: Aerial photograph of Sonoma State Home, from 1950-52 Biennial Report of the California Department of Mental Hygiene, courtesy of Alex Wallerstein. The black and white image shows manicured grounds and numerous large, institutional buildings. Download mp3 f...

Michael Davis (Hampton University) discusses his research on the Wright Brothers and Edgar Cayce. Episode Image: Portrait of the Wright Brothers, c. 1908. The image shows two tall, thin white men wearing suits and bowler hats. One has a moustache; the other is clean-shaven. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Dr. Mike Davis is Assistant Professor of History at Ham...

Camille Owens (Yale University) tells the story of nineteenth-century child performer Oscar Moore. Episode Image: Photo of “‘Bright’ Oscar Moore,” produced by Anderson at 785 Broadway, NY. The black and white image shows a young Black boy wearing an elaborate velvet suit with a large lace collar and cuffs. Source: Beinecke Library, Yale. Download mp3 here. Download pdf tran...

Iain Hutchison (University of Glasgow) discusses his work on disability history in Scotland. Episode Image: Dr. Moon’s Embossed Alphabet for the Blind, from William Moon and his Work for the Blind , by John Rutherfurd (1898). The image shows an English alphabet depicted with streamlined raised forms, like semi-circles, straight lines, and right angles. The letters are displayed in alphabetic...

Ayah Nuriddin (Johns Hopkins University) discusses the history of Maryland’s Crownsville State Hospital. Episode Image: Black and white image of Crownsville State Hospital, c. 1915. A large brick building with multiple wings. Source: asylumprojects.org https://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Edited-Ayah-Interview.mp3 Download mp3 here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Aya...

Director Michael Hudson discusses the history of APH, the museum’s exhibits and collections, and accessible museum practice. Episode Image: The Callahan Gallery at the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind. This section features “The First Book for Blind People.” The book is inside a glass case. In front, there is a telephone handset and a touchable reproduction of...

Professor David Gerber (University of Buffalo) discusses this classic 1946 film about servicemen readjusting to civilian life after World War II. Episode Image: Lobby card from The Best Years of Our Lives . The card features an image of serviceman dancing with a woman in a purple suit. Below, five actors from the film smile at the camera. Source: limitedruns.com https://dishist.org/wp-content/uplo...

Dr. Laurel Daen discusses her award-winning article. Episode Image: Cut paper card by Martha Anne Honeywell, c. 1830. A decorative pink blossom and green leaves made of precisely cut paper. In the centre, the Lord’s Prayer is written in a space as small as a five-cent piece. Source: metmuseum.org https://dishist.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Edited-Conversation-with-Laurel3.mp3 Download mp3...

Dr. Nancy Hansen (University of Manitoba) discusses disability history and activism in Canada. Episode Image: Untold Stories , edited by Nancy Hansen, Roy Hanes, and Diane Driedger. The cover shows a small wooden model of a bunkbed and a wheelchair. Two dolls sleep in the bunkbed; one is lying next to a skeleton. A flag on the wheelchair reads “My will is great. My will remains. -Frieda Kahl...

Dr. Laura Micheletti Puaca discusses her chapter, “The Largest Occupational Group of All the Disabled: Homemakers with Disabilities and Vocational Rehabilitation in Postwar America,” which was published in the collection  Disabling Domesticity (2017) and won one of the Disability History Association’s publication awards. Episode Image: “You can do family laundry — with...

Dr. Hannah Thompson discusses her new book, Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789-2013. Episode Image: Cover of Reviewing Blindness in French Fiction, 1789-2013 , by Hannah Thompson. It features an image of a hand reading a Braille book. Download mp3 file here. Download pdf transcript here. About Our Guest Dr Hannah Thompson ( Hannah.thompson@rhul.ac.uk ) is a Reader in French at Royal Hollo...

Haley Gienow-McConnell discusses her research on representations of disability in the hit 1970s TV show The Waltons . Episode Image: TV Guide , August 21, 1976. The cover shows three members of the Waltons cast: an older white man wearing overalls and a hat, an older white woman wearing a cotton dress and holding a basket of eggs, and a young white man wearing a shirt and suspenders. Download mp3...