Community-based work programs during the Progressive Era

According to recent US Census data, over 60% of Americans who are disabled are also unemployed. This paper will use historiography to describe goal directed activities used by public health advocates to improve the lives of people with mental and physical disabilities from 1880-1920. The strong connection between community programs and social networks provided outlets to sell hand made products that offered an early, tentative link to employment. Arequipa Sanatorium for Working Women, (1911-41), Marblehead Pottery (1907-26) and Consolation House (1908-1921) were widely recognized by lay and professional audiences as programs that fostered productive community living among people with disabilities. Program goals were designed to gradually increase work tolerance and focus skills on employment.

This presentation will use primary sources and images to describe these programs and outcomes. Phillip King Brown, the founder of Arequipa Sanatorium, prescribed pottery making for working class women with TB. A similar program developed by Herbert J. Hall at Marblehead Pottery gradually strengthened tolerance using a “work cure” so participants would have “half a loaf”. George Barton (Consolation House) cured his own paralysis by prescribing work like medication and set up a workshop in Clifton Springs, New York. These leaders recognized the need for more streamlined reconstruction efforts because of the numbers of WWI soldiers who needed to learn industrial tasks. Efforts to integrate these programs into communities smoothed recovery from a disrupting life event and created a collaboration between medical and social rehabilitation programs and policies.