Defectives, Feeble-minded: United States. Massachusetts. Waverly. School for Feeble-minded: Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded. c. 1903

Curator: This photographic composite, attributed to William A. Webster, is titled "Defectives, Feeble-minded: United States. Massachusetts. Waverly. School for Feeble-minded: Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded.” Editor: It’s sepia-toned and haunting. The classrooms, filled with students, feel both ordered and deeply unsettling. Curator: Precisely. It comes from an era when institutions were considered a solution for those deemed "feeble-minded," reflecting societal attitudes towards disability and difference. The images depict various classroom activities, from drawing to geography. Editor: The scale is so interesting, from individual students to group settings, and the slight blur gives it a dreamlike quality, as if these scenes are half-remembered or not real at all. I wonder what it was like for the kids. Curator: The power dynamic is inherent in the image itself. It’s a visual record of social control. Editor: It does seem such a world removed from today.