Introduction
When researching this topic, it is difficult to find source material relating to disability as many of the references are either outdated or descriptive, making searching for keywords difficult. As well as this, usually the only data available is through official or medical sources, with little from the disabled perspective. Therefore, detective work and creative thinking is needed to find these sources and experiences, especially with mental and hidden disabilities. Since disability history is an emerging area, new areas to look for information are coming to light, and examples are seen in Historic England's History of Disability and the The National Archives Disability history research guide. Historic England has a useful Disability History Glossary that can be used in looking for historic documents.
Secondary works often provide primary sources in their references and bibliographies. Looking in other areas or collections will also be useful. Religious history collections include records of hospitals looking after disabled people and saints associated with different conditions. Military history is useful for looking at how people became disabled as well as employment history. Social Policy history is useful for looking at the changes in policy and culture that impacted disabled people and their culture. Where disability history is just one aspect among many themes in a source, searching the catalogue for disabled, disability and related terms is unlikely to identify it, so wider searches and shelf-browsing may be needed to uncover the wide variety of sources.
Creative thinking about terminology is also needed when searching databases. Often when talking about disability in the past, outdated and offensive terms were used, instead of modern ones. So in looking for sources, older terms will have to be used as well as the modern ones. Many learning, social or hidden disabilities were not recognised or identified correctly, with different terminology given to them than would be given today. Some online resources such as the Times Online and the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary have tools for looking at changing usage and frequency over time of disabled terms and their changing categorisation.
General Works
Institutional Records
- Health and hygiene in early modern Norwich : account rolls of the Great Hospital, Norwich, 1549-50 and 1570-71
- Documents concerning Cyprus from the Hospital's Rhodian archives : 1409-1459
- Charters of the medieval hospitals of Bury St. Edmunds
- Burdett's hospitals and charities 1902 : being the year book of philanthropy and the hospital annual containing...institutions and dispensaries
- Supplement to the "memoranda relating to the royal hospitals" : consisting of original documents from the record office, the British Museum, the privy council, the archives of the city,
- History of the free-schools, colleges, hospitals, and asylums of Birmingham, and their fulfilment
- Quellen zur europäischen Spitalgeschichte in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit = Sources for the history of hospitals in medieval and early modern Europe
- Notitia monastica : or, An account of all the abbies, priories and houses of friers, heretofore in England and Wales; and also of all the colleges and hospitals founded before A. D. MDXL
- The Metropolitan Asylums Board and its work, 1867-1930
- Insane and feeble-minded in institutions 1910
- The Ratcliffe charity, 1536-1936
- A collection and abstract of all the material deeds, wills, leases and legal documents relating to relating to the several donations and benefactions to the church and poor of the parish of Dartford, Kent and of the 'spital alms-houses
- Association of Public Sanitary Inspectors of Great Britain.
- Duo rerum anglicarum scriptores veteres
Parliamentary Records
A variety of sources are held for different disabilities and the policies surrounding them. These include Petitions, Parliamentary Debates and Proceedings, Reports and Acts of Parliament. See also the separate Guide to UK Parliamentary History Collections in the library. A few examples of Parliament records dealing with disability are listed below.
- Disability and Carers Service annual report and accounts 2007-08
- The digital switchover help scheme : a scheme agreement between Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and the British Broadcasting Corporation
- Papers and Bills relating to the Disability Discrimination Act and the Equality Act in the UK Parliamentary Papers database.
Literary Sources
Drama Online
Drama Online includes plays which look at the concept of disability and feature people with disabilities, for example Nobody here but us chickens and Sauce for the goose. This is useful for looking at the cultural perceptions of disability and how they were portrayed on stage. These plays usually can be found by keywords related to disability, including outdated ones.
Literature Online
Literature Online includes historical literature and novels that portray fictional characters with disabilities. This is useful for looking at the cultural perceptions of disability and how they were portrayed in fiction. These texts usually can be found by keywords related to disability, including outdated ones. Below are some examples of literature that feature disability.
Mass Observation Online
Mass Observation Online holds many records and original sources, some of which concern disability. These can be searched for using keywords linked to disability or in topic collections, such as the one below telling us about attitudes towards Blind people in 1947 through surveys:
Censuses
Census material sometimes indicates an individual’s disability. The IHR library has access to some census material, although not complete coverage. It also has guides to census material. For the UK, see also The National Archives guide to census records.
Newspapers
Online newspaper collections (onsite only) - both fully searchable:
Nineteenth century periodicals:
Secondary Works
Below is a selection of print holdings on the subject of disability, both general and subject specific works. Bibliography of British and Irish History is a useful tool for finding material. There are many online texts relating to disability research through resources such as JSTOR. These can be searched by keyword.
- Gender, the body, and disability in The Oxford handbook of American women's and gender history / edited by Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor, Lisa G. Materson
- The Oxford handbook of disability history / edited by Michael Rembis, Catherine J. Kudlick, and Kim E. Nielsen
- Disability and the welfare state in Britain : changes in perception and policy 1948-1979 / Jameel Hampton
- War's relentless hand : twelve tales of Civil War soldiers
- Mapping epidemics : a historical atlas of disease
- A chronology of epidemic disease and mortality in southeast England, 1601-1800
- The impact of physical, spiritual and mental health on shipboard order in the early English East India Company voyages, 1601-1611
- The practice of reform in health, medicine, and science, 1500-2000 : essays for Charles Webster
- A documentary history of public health in Hong Kong
- Das Jahrzeitbuch des Heilig-Geist-Hospitals Kaufbeuren
- The impact of hospitals, 300-2000
- Charity and the London hospitals, 1850-1898
- Philanthropy and the hospitals of London : the King's Fund, 1897-1990
- England's first state hospitals and the Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1867-1930
- Small and special : the development of hospitals for children in Victorian Britain
Resources on Particular Disabilities
Deaf
Primary Sources
Listed below are some primary sources particularly those which can be found using relevant keyword searches on the catalogue. These primary sources include newsletters, plays and official records relating to deafness. Primary sources can be hard to find using the catalogue for the reasons explained in the introduction, and further research will be needed to find other material within printed and online editions of sources. The sources and the way they are described may include outdated terms such as dumb, and the thesauri of historic keywords highlighted in 'Finding materials' may be useful.
- The works of George Dalgarno of Aberdeen.
- Thirteenth annual report of the Board of Commissioners and Officers of the Alabama Institution for the deaf and dumb and the blind, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1873, to the governor
- Teaching language to a boy born deaf : the Popham notebook and associated texts
- State documents 1870
Journals
These are some subject-specific journals that can be accessed online through the library catalogue. There will also be relevant articles in more general periodical titles.
- Sign language studies
- Language, speech & hearing services in schools
- Journal of the American Deafness and Rehabilitation Association
- Journal of deaf studies and deaf education
- American annals of the deaf
Secondary Sources
Here are examples of the books or chapters available on deafness in the library, with more available online through the catalogue. They can be found using keywords related to deaf topics.
- Deaf-blindness and the institutionalization of special education in nineteenth-century Europe, chapter 15 in The Oxford handbook of disability history
- Transnational interconnections in nineteenth-century Western deaf communities, chapter 24 in The Oxford handbook of disability history.
Blind
Primary sources
A list of primary sources is available on the library catalogue and in other collections, like Drama Online using keywords associated with blindness. These primary sources include newsletters about blindness, plays with blind characters and official records relating to blindness. See the Disability History Glossary in ‘Finding Materials’ for more information. Some examples of sources are listed below.
- The Blunkett tapes : my life in the bear pit / David Blunkett
- The actis and deidis of the illustere and vailðeand campioun Schir William Wallace, Knicht of Ellerslie : by Henry the Minstrel, commonly known as blind Harry
- Thirteenth annual report of the Board of Commissioners and Officers of the Alabama Institution for the deaf and dumb and the blind, for the year ending Sept. 30, 1873, to the governor
Journals
These are some subject-specific journals that can be accessed online through the library catalogue. There will also be relevant articles in more general periodical titles.
Secondary Sources
Here are examples of the books or chapters available on blindness in the library, with more available online through the catalogue.
- The archive of the Wilberforce memorial : at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research
- Private Francis "Blind" Patterson, War's relentless hand : twelve tales of Civil War soldiers
- Seeking justice for a blind black man in front of Judge Cox, Voices of civil rights lawyers : reflections from the deep South, 1964-1980
Mental Health
Primary Sources
A list of primary sources are available in the library catalogue and in other collections, like PsycBOOKS using keywords associated with mental health such as sanity. These primary sources include testimonies about mental health, plays looking at mental health and official records of mentally ill people. See ‘Finding Materials’ for more advice about finding material. Some examples are listed below of what can be found in the library alone while more can be found online.
- Histoire de Magdelaine Bavent, religieuse du monastère de Saint-Louis de Louviers, avec sa confession générale et testamentaire
- Formulae merowingici et karolini aevi : Accedunt Ordines judiciorum dei
- Rituel d'exorcisme ou manuel de magie ? : le manuscrit Clm 10085 de la Bayerische Staatsbibliothek de Munich
Secondary Sources
Here are examples of the various secondary sources on mental health held in the library.
- English Catholics and the supernatural, 1553-1829
- The private lunatic asylums of East Riding
- England's first state hospitals and the Metropolitan Asylums Board, 1867-1930
- Mary Lincoln's insanity case : a documentary history
- A mad, bad, and dangerous people? : England, 1783-1846 / Boyd Hilton
- Demonic possession and exorcism in early modern England : contemporary texts and their cultural contexts
- Witchcraft, exorcism and the politics of possession in a seventeenth-century convent : 'How Sister Ursula was once bewitched and Sister Margaret twice'
Journals
These are some subject-specific journals that can be accessed online through the library catalogue. There will also be relevant articles in more general periodical titles.
Cognitive and Intellectual Disability
Primary Sources
A list of primary sources are available in the library catalogue and in other collections, like PsycBOOKS using keywords associated with Cognitive and Intellectual disability. However, most primary sources cannot be found using modern keywords. Therefore, when researching, outdated terms such as ‘feeble’ must be used instead to get a better understanding of the sources available. It may help to look up the development of modern terms and their historical meaning. As well as this, due to the lack of understanding in the past about intellectual and cognitive disability, there are few obvious sources about specific disabilities, especially unofficial sources. See the Disability History Glossary in ‘Finding Materials’ for more information. Some examples are listed below of what can be found in the library alone while more can be found online.
- Insane and feeble-minded in institutions 1910
- The Journal of abnormal psychology and social psychology
Secondary Sources
Here are some examples of secondary sources that can be found in the library relating to Cognitive and Intellectual disability. More sources can be found online in the catalogue using keywords relating to the topic. Due to the nature of the subject and the recent modern understanding of it, more sources looking at cognitive and intellectual disability can be found if the search term is expanded to include outdated or offensive terms, such as 'feeble-minded'.
- Studying with dyslexia
- Social Darwinism and social policy : the problem of the feeble-minded 1900-1914
Journals
These are some subject-specific journals that can be accessed online through the library catalogue. There will also be relevant articles in more general periodical titles.
- Journal of mental health research in intellectual disabilities
- Autism research and treatment
- Education and training in autism and developmental disabilities
- Journal of autism and developmental disorders
- Annals of dyslexia
- Dyslexia
- Bulletin of the Orton Society
- Journal of developmental and physical disabilities
- Education and training in developmental disabilities
- Journal of intellectual & developmental disability
- Journal on developmental disabilities
- American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Mental retardation
- Journal of abnormal child psychology
- Education and Training of the Mentally Retarded
Physical and Chronic Disability and Mobility Issues
For clarity, this topic also includes hidden or invisible disabilities which affect the person physically, acutely or chronically. This includes various syndromes and autoimmune diseases.
Primary sources
There are few primary sources exclusively devoted to chronic disability, often described as diseases. Most sources mention it briefly or as a secondary topic, while physical disability is mentioned through outdated terms such as ‘cripple’. This is a selection of sources available in the library. It may also be useful to look at medical records to see how chronic illnesses were treated and managed.
- AIDS archives in the UK
- Recueil d'actes de Saint-Lazare de Paris 1124-1254
- The true story of Kaluaikoolau / as told by his wife, Piilani
- Archives de la lèpre : atlas des léproseries entre Loire et Marne au Moyen Age
- Inventaire des archives de l'Hôpital de Cornillon à Liège
- Notes sur la léproserie Saint-Martin de Fécamp
- Cartulaire de la léproserie du Grand-Beaulieu et du prieuré de Notre-Dame de la Bourdinière
- The mediæval hospitals of England
- Statuts d'hôtels-Dieu et de léproseries : recueil de textes du XIIe au XIVe siècle
Secondary Sources
These are some examples of the secondary sources on chronic and physical disability available in the library, with more available online through the catalogue, using keywords relating to chronic and physical disability. It may also be useful to look at medical history to find out more about the history of chronic illnesses and physical disability.
- On the history of the decline and final extinction of leprosy as an endemic disease in the British Islands
- Living saints of the thirteenth century : the lives of Yvette, anchoress of Huy ; Juliana of Cornillon, author of the Corpus Christi feast ; and Margaret the Lame, anchoress of Magdeburg
- "Lepers outside the gate" : excavations at the cemetery of the Hospital of St James and St Mary Magdalene, Chichester, 1986-87 and 1993
- Leprosorien in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit
- Maladie et société au Moyen Age : la lèpre, les lépreux et les léproseries dans la province ecclésiastique de Sens jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle
- Lépreux et maladreries du Pas-de-Calais
- Nujeen : one girl's incredible journey from war-torn Syria in a wheelchair
- The blessing of cramp-rings; a chapter in the history of the treatment of epilepsy, Studies in the history and method of science
Journals
These are some subject-specific journals that can be accessed online through the library catalogue. There will also be relevant articles in more general periodical titles.
- AIDS treatment news
- National Reye's Syndrome Foundation Pamphlets
- Tourette Syndrome Association Pamphlets
- Diabetology & metabolic syndrome
- Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity
- AIDS research and human retroviruses
- Metabolic syndrome and related disorders
- CDC AIDS weekly
- AIDS care
- Journal of Obesity & Metabolic Syndrome
- Neurodegenerative Disease Management
- Brain impairment: a multidisciplinary journal of the Australian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment
- Congenital heart disease
- Journal of developmental and physical disabilities
- Leprosy review
- Indian Journal of Cerebral Palsy
- Epilepsy currents
- Epilepsy research and treatment
- Current Medical Literature. Epilepsy Monitor
Other Resources
Biographical Works
We have a strong collection of biographical listings at both national level and covering specific subjects (for example lists by profession, political figures, university alumni lists). The collections also include many personal narratives and biographical works.
Below are a few examples of historical figures who lived with different disabilities. More people who lived with disabilities can be found through the Oxford National Biography using terms related to disability, for example deaf or blind. A simple internet search can also help to find more disabled historical figures.
- Samuel Johnson (Blind, Deaf, Tourette Syndrome, Depression, Scrofula and mobility issues)
- Horatio Nelson (Amputee and Blind)
- Charles II of Spain (Genetic disorders, epilepsy, mobility issues, speech impediments and learning difficulties)
- George III (Mental health condition, Deaf and Blind)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (Deaf)
- Helen Keller (Blind and Deaf)
- Frida Kahlo (Physical disability and mobility issues)
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (physical disability and mobility issues)
- Vincent Van Gogh (Mental health condition)
Periodicals
The most recent years of most of our journals are on open access in the Current Periodicals room on the ground floor. Earlier issues can be ordered from the stack. Many are also available online within the building via the links on the catalogue. Bibliography of British and Irish History and JSTOR are examples of the online databases that can be used to locate journal articles. Items on this subject will appear across the titles, but subject-specific examples include:
- African journal of disability
- American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities
- Technology and disability
- Sexuality and disability
- Scandinavian journal of disability research
- Report on disability law
- Report on disability programs
- Learning disability practice
- Learning disability quarterly: journal of the Division for Children with Learning Disabilities
- Journal of Disability Studies in Education
- Journal of intellectual disability research
- Journal of disability policy studies
- Journal of intellectual & developmental disability
- Journal of literary & cultural disability studies
- JIDR, Journal of Intellectual Disability Research Supplement
- International journal of disability, development, and education
- Disability, handicap & society
- Disability, culture and education
- Mental and physical disability law reporter
Online Resources
Many resources are licensed for use within the library only.
Other Collections
Within IHR library
Browse collection guides to find material relevant to your particular area of interest. Sources will be found across all the geographically arranged collections, but there will be particular examples in:
Other libraries, archives, organisations
- The National Archives (UK) guide to disability collections.
- Historic England Disability History Page
- History of Parliament
Further Help
Contact us if you would like help on finding or using our collections, or if you have any comments or suggestions about the content of this guide. We are happy to help.
You can also book a tour or training session.
Examples from Sources
The following provide some sense of how disability is recorded in a range of historical sources. Please note that the following may include some terms that would be unacceptable today.
"Eadric the Cripple held it in alms from King Edward. Now Edward the son of Eadric holds it, and it paid geld for 1 virgate of land."
Undercleave, attached to the manor of Axminster, Domesday Book: A Complete Translation, ed. Ann Williams and G. H. Martin (London: Penguin, 2002), p. 278.
"The Worcester College for Blind Sons of Gentlemen, at the Commandery, Sidbury, is the only public school in Europe for the class indicated. It is designed for the conveying [of] a sound and liberal education by means of methods and appliances unattainable in homes and minor establishments ...The College building is pleasantly situated in safe and spacious grounds ... The library is composed of a rare and valuable collection of books in embossed type of various kinds, and complete apparatus for facilitating the education of the blind. There is in the city a Society for Providing Cheap Literature for the Blind ... The type used is the ordinary Roman character, divested of all ornaments. The Society is established for the purpose of supplying the blind with embossed books of instruction and amusement at a much lower cost than has hitherto been done."
Entry for Worcester in Littlebury's Directory of Worcestershire, 1873, p.797-8