Over 1,000 full-color slides: ward parties, kite derbies, the search for a missing child, and one series devoted entirely to clowns.
More than one thousand snapshots on Kodachrome, Anscochrome, and Ektachrome film, taken between about 1958 and 1976: life inside a state institution, in a changing era.
Most are unlabeled and undated, their photographers unknown. The subjects need no labels: construction projects, ground-breaking ceremonies, Fourth of July parades. Kite derbies and picnics. Ward parties for residents and staff. Gatherings at the Superintendent's house, and Dr. Ladd in his last years, beside his young second wife.
There are holiday pageants, dormitory Christmas trees, and carnivals. The institution's oldest buildings. The search for a missing child. One series is devoted entirely to clowns.
Drawn from official reports, institutional letters, and records no one was meant to read again, House Dogs in the Turnips resurrects the voice of Dr. Joseph H. Ladd as a posthumous memoir written in the aftermath of a murder accusation that brought his career to an end.
Maybe we'll email you.
