In this episode, we discuss the field of Disability History and how it relates to several items at the MHS. Jenny Reiss, a Ph.D. candidate at University of Pennsylvania, introduces us to Gouverneur Morris, a founding father of the United States who lived with disabilities. We then take a look at several 19th and 20th century objects in the collection that relate to the history of disability.

Learn more about episode objects here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/season-3-episode-2-gouverneur-morris-and-history-disability 

Email us at [email protected].

Episode Special Guests: 

Jennifer W. Reiss is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is working on a dissertation, tentatively titled "Undone Bodies: Women and Disability in Early America", exploring the relationship between gender and disability in colonial America and the early Republic. She holds a B.A. in History and Political Science, also from Penn, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and two Master's degrees, in Law and in History, from the University of Cambridge.

Mary Yacovone, Curator of Rare Books & Visual Materials, has been at the MHS since 1994, after beginning her library career at the Essex Institute in Salem, Mass. She holds a B.A. in English from Tufts University and a Masters in Library Science from Simmons College.

This episode uses materials from:

Across The River by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported) Psychic by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk) Curious Nature by Dominic Giam of Ketsa Music (licensed under a commercial non-exclusive license by the Massachusetts Historical Society through Ketsa.uk)