Online Archive of University of Virginia Scholarship
Incurable Defects: Physical Disability and the Philadelphia Outdoor Relief System, 1790-1840420 views
Author
Schroeder, Nicole, History - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia0000-0003-4957-2459
Advisors
Edelson, Scott, Department of History, University of Virginia
Abstract
"Incurable Defects" offers a reading of 19th century American welfare debates using a disability studies lens. Providing data analysis on welfare pensioners in the city of Philadelphia throughout the 1820s, this paper rewrites disabled individuals into the history of the city. I argue that disabled individuals shaped the emerging medico-welfare system alongside influences from citizen taxpayers, doctors, and government officials. I offer a complicated narrative that helps to trace the history of ableism in American culture and lays out the divergent paths our welfare system might have taken outside of institutionalization.
Degree
MA (Master of Arts)
Keywords
welfare; disability history; 19th century; medical history; Philadelphia
Language
English
Rights
All rights reserved (no additional license for public reuse)
Schroeder, Nicole. Incurable Defects: Physical Disability and the Philadelphia Outdoor Relief System, 1790-1840. University of Virginia, History - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, MA (Master of Arts), 2018-05-04, https://doi.org/10.18130/V3FQ9Q51D.
