Author Description

This project involves a review of the career of Dr Helen MacMurchy (1864--1953) while she served as "Inspector of the Feeble-Minded" for the Province of Ontario between 1906 and 1919. More specifically, the research is a close analysis of an investigation into an incident of physical abuse that occurred at the Victoria Industrial School for boys at Mimico in 1912. The Commission of Inquiry ordered by the Provincial Secretary considered that a number of the inmates who gave testimony were "feebleminded." Dr. MacMurchy was later assigned to examine all the boys at the school to ascertain how many required alternative placement from that which the industrial school was designed to provide. The contemporary meaning of the term "feeblemindedness" and the determining criteria that made use of photographic evidence are central to the work of the research project.