HISTORICAL BOOK
COLLECTION
This collection of books, pamphlets and journal articles from Walter E. Fernald, Malcolm Farrell, and other Superintendents of the Fernald Center, has been collected from libraries that once were in existence in other parts of the Fernald Center. The materials date from the 1840’s to 1959. Under Dr. Fernald, who was Superintendent from 1887 until his death in 1924, the Library was called “the most complete library on Mental Defect to be found anywhere in the world.” (Annual Report, 1924)
The books and other materials are organized into 116 subject areas according to the original classification scheme. The subjects include mental retardation as well as social welfare, social work, psychiatry, the Mental Hygiene Movement, special education, general education, genetics, eugenics, medicine and more. There are 1,438 books in the collection (1,390 titles) and 2,527 articles and pamphlets.