The Dr. Joseph H. Ladd School
Uncovering the history of the Dr. Joseph H. Ladd Center in Exeter, Rhode Island.
We document the Ladd Center's complex past through archives, photographs, and firsthand accounts.
As independent researchers, we believe these stories, both difficult and inspiring, deserve honest preservation.
House Dogs in the Turnips
For forty-seven years, Dr. Joseph H. Ladd served as superintendent of the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded in Exeter, overseeing thousands committed to the State's care.
Drawn from official reports, institutional letters, and records no one was meant to read again, House Dogs in the Turnips resurrects his voice as a posthumous memoir written in the aftermath of a murder accusation that brought his career to an end.
The largest collection of Ladd School history in the world
True stories from the Ladd School
This Week in Dust
Forgotten crimes, strange science, and hidden histories from New England's asylums and early 20th-century Rhode Island.
More than thirty episodes. Patrons get the extra material that didn't fit.
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