Historical Photographs

Photo Album: 1940s

An adult female helps a child in a swimming tube kick his legs in a pool.

A student kicked in the exercise pool at the Mary Helen Lindsay School, 1940.

Seven adult males with developmental disabilities sit in benches or stand aimlessly by a window in a large institutional-style room.

Male patients at the Willmar State Hospital, 1940. Willmar was established by the legislature in 1907 and originally operated as the "Hospital Farm for Inebriates." The site quickly became a place to house people with mental illness or developmental disabilities. For more on the history of Willmar, see State Hospitals by the MHS.

Four long rows of children in wheelchairs sit behind a ceremonial rope, all dressed for winter weather.

Students from Dowling School awaited the arrival of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. FDR had been stricken with polio in 1921, and privately used a wheelchair he had designed himself.

A well-groomed politician stands within a group of eager children, many with disabilities and wearing headbands.

Governor Luther Youngdahl with a group of children in front of the Dewey-Warren Headquarters at the State Fair. It was Children's Day at the Fair, and Youngdahl was campaigning for re-election as Governor in 1948.

Four high-school-aged students in wheelchairs read books.

Four students in wheelchairs at Mechanic Arts High School, St. Paul, 1949. Students were identified as Joe Hill, Bernadette Reich, Margaret Smack, and Gene St. Martin.