4,537 Comments for Pennhurst State School

Mott, the topic was not about abortion, I was attempting to give validity to the racist agenda of eugenics here in America that you said: " I don't think U.S. eugenics at institutions were based on racism." Abortion is a product of Eugenics including the many mental institutions that developed. Eugenics initially preyed upon blacks, native Americans, and of the weak. Eugenics is a system that had been institutionalized. Many of the works of these institutions in my opinion did not know what they were apart of or the endgame. I'm sure many of them thought what they were doing was necessary. When I consider Pennhurst, I understand it's existence would never had been if it had not been for eugenics. This art work only confirms my intimations of racism. It's there for a reason and making a clear utterance.

I haven't studied eugenics in whole; however I could only find a racism correlation regarding state institutions and eugenics in southern states (see Defective or Disabled?: Race, Medicine, and Eugenics in Progressive Era Virginia and Alabama by Gregory Michael Dorr). It seems like an interesting topic to investigate, but doesn't really give much insight to the origin of these murals at an institution outside Philadelphia.

Some other publications that delve into eugenics in state schools that might be of interest:

Inventing the Feeble Mind: A History of Mental Retardation in the United States
The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public
Mental Retardation in America: A Historical Reader

Any discussion about abortion will be promptly removed; it has no bearing on this photograph and is off-topic.

Wow, the first time I ever heard such a thing. Have you ever studied or traced the origins of Eugenics that sprung out of Social Darwinism? This was a thought that originated by racist German and Anglo Saxons of Europe. Their cover was the “improvement the human species” through their systems of control (Eugenics). They believed that they were at the pentacle of human evolution. This thought gave reason for wanting to preserve and improve their “species” by way of selective mating and of coarse covertly destroy the “lesser races” through various methods. Now there were many philosophical debates among their own scholars which method would be the best course of action. One famous Eugenicist in America was Margaret Sanger who created Planned Parenthood which is nothing more but an abortionist clinic. Her aim was to reduce the numbers of blacks in America which end up being very successful because the #1 killer of blacks in America is now Abortion. Eugenicist roots are birth out of disdain for other races. Modern psychology was birth out of Eugenics and Pennhurst would have never came into existence if it was not for eugenics. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit too much but it's the truth.

Terrell, I think I'd have to disagree.

This artwork is located in Pennsylvania, and has no relation to Germany or the Nazi party as far as I know.

The eugenics movement in PA was only carried out at the Elwyn Institute, where 270 residents were sterilized. No sterilizations took place at Pennhurst, and I don't think U.S. eugenics at institutions were based on racism.
http://www.uvm.edu/~lk.../eugenics/PA/PA.html

I think in order to understand the meaning of this piece of art you have to take into consideration the dictum of that day. This is exactly what a commenter stated previously “Social Darwinism/Eugenics.” During this time Social Darwinism/Eugenics was gaining a lot of momentum and was being institutionalized, example of this is exactly this old facility. Whoever was stigmatized as being feeble minded were institutionalize and sterilized. They also perform many horrible experimentations on them. Social Darwinism/Eugenics was the driving force of the Nazis, to “preserve the race” aka “Aryans” by one day reeding the world of all who they thought were imbeciles thus stopping retrogression. This placement of art is an indirect way of saying blacks were imbeciles which they believed. This was a way to show their pure disdain for the black race and all the “lesser races” for that matter. This is a sad reality of history.

What building is this?

This is the basement of Limerick Hall.

The Pennhurst Memorial & Preservation Alliance (PM&PA;) actually rewired some of the buildings to get back electricity. They even installed a new telephone box, until it was destroyed by vandals.

This was the Assembly Building. It was located away from the rest of the campus.

Do you know what building this was in? It looks like it might've been in the Assembly Building, AKA the auditorium.

Strange that they were in the hospital building. These desks were usually in Rockwell Hall, AKA the school building.

Do they even use these lights anymore? There are a lot of objects from pictures of the place from even the 60s, when nurses wore those funny hats.

What building is this in?

Was this the hospital? It might've been wing C in the hospital; it was condemned and sealed off because of fire code reasons. When you say it might've been a dormitory, it could've been one of the rooms where sick patients slept.

If this was in another building on the third floor, then that would explain this room being sealed off. All the buildings with third floors (not counting the attics or hte basements) had their third floors sealed off. It is unknown why they did this, although there is some speculation that it was only economical, as the heating couldn't reach the third floor.

You said there were sunflowers painted on the windows here. In that case this might've at one time been an occupational therapy room or a dayroom. The dayrooms were where the patients went during the day; they were usually hellholes. The occupational therapy rooms were where the patients could actually do something, like music or art or woodworking.