STATE INSTITUTIONS DOCUMENTS: State Institutions – General

<< Return to Main Document Index

The general category includes articles and speeches by institution staff, system-wide reports, and, chronologically, other documents relating to the state institutions in general. State Institutions: Future Planning includes individual proposals and reports and documents from joint planning efforts regarding future use of the state institutions. Welsch Documents includes orders in that action in the federal district court and related documents.

Introduction – Arthur C. Rogers

Arthur C. Rogers served as Superintendent of the School for the Feebleminded at Faribault from September 1, 1885 until he died on January 2, 1917. He was born near Decorah, Iowa on July 17, 1856. Rogers attended public schools in Iowa and Michigan and the River Valley Seminary in Adrian, Michigan. He received a B.S. degree from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana in 1877.  He worked as a bookkeeper for five years at the  Iowa State School for Feeble Minded at Glenwood, Iowa. In 1883 he received his M.D. degree from the State University of Iowa Medical Department. After medical school he worked as a physician and clerk at the government training school for Indians in Chemawa, Oregon.

Rogers participated in the professional organizations of the day.  On a national level he participated in the National Conference of Charities and Corrections and became one of the leaders of the Association of Medical Officers.  (The latter organization changed its name to the American Association for the Study of the Feebleminded in 1906.  Today it is known as the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.) Rogers edited that organization’s journal, the Journal of Psycho Asthenics, which was published at Faribault. He also supported the research of the American Breeders Association. In Minnesota Rogers participated in the Minnesota Conference of Charities and Corrections, the Minnesota Academy of Social Science, and the Minnesota Educational Association.  After the Board of Control was established, he took an active part in its quarterly conferences.

This portion of With an Eye to the Past includes papers Rogers presented at conferences of these organizations, his comments in discussions held at these conferences, and articles he wrote. During his years as Superintendent he also prepared the annual or biennial reports and numerous letters and documents included in the Faribault section of With an Eye to the Past.

The Minnesota Historical Society has a large collection of Rogers' official correspondence, as well as correspondence relating to other personal and business activities.

Introduction – A. R. T. Wylie

Arthur Rufus Trego Wylie, a graduate of Harvard University, became one of the first psychologists employed at an institution for persons with developmental disabilities when Superintendent A. C. Rogers hired him to serve in that capacity at the School for the Feeble-Minded in Faribault in 1898. He worked there in that capacity until 1902.  After he received his M.D. degree at the University of Minnesota in 1906, Rogers hired him as the first assistant physician, a position he held until 1910, when he became superintendent at the Institution for the Feebleminded in Grafton, North Dakota. Wylie returned to Minnesota in 1935 as junior physician at the School for Feeble-Minded and Colony for Epileptics at Faribault, a position he held until his death in March 1941.

With an Eye to the Past includes reports of his psychological studies at Faribault and other publications.

Introduction – James M. Murdoch

Dr. James Moorhead Murdoch was Superintendent of the School for the Feeble-Minded and Colony for Epileptics at Faribault from September 1927 until July 1937. A graduate of Yale University, he had been superintendent of the Polk State School for the Feebleminded near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from the time that school was founded in 1896 until he resigned in 1925. He died in Pittsburgh in 1944. Mildred Thomson describes Murdoch in very favorable terms in Prologue. With an Eye to the Past includes several of his published documents, both from the time when he was in Pennsylvania and from the time he was at Faribault.

Introduction – State Board of Visitors

In 1907 the Minnesota Legislature established a Board of Visitors of six persons to serve without compensation, except for payment for expenses. This Board was to "study the whole subject of the care and management of charitable and correctional institutions" and to "visit those within the bounds of the state, whether state, county or municipal..." The Board was required to make biennial reports to the Legislature. Minnesota Laws 1907, chapter 441. The Board was abolished by the Legislature in 1929. Minnesota Laws 1929, chapter 272. With an Eye to the Past includes those portions of the Reports which refer to the School for the Feeble-Minded at Faribault and the Minnesota State Hospital for Crippled and Deformed Children.

Introduction – Superintendents' Meeting Minutes

With an Eye to the Past includes copies of minutes of some of the meetings held in the 1950s and 1960s of the superintendents of the state institutions supervised by the Department of Public Welfare. The superintendents generally discussed a variety of issues at these meetings in addition to those noted in this index. A complete set of these minutes is in Box 109.I.16.11(B) in the state archives at the Minnesota Historical Society.