Here are more pictures of children at Morningside Hospital in 1923. Children were sent to Morningside because they had mental and physical disabilities, many of which we would call developmental disabilities today. This is the diagnosis for a child from Anchorage:

“Adrnitted November 7,1925. Anchorage. A native child of four years. Speaks no English. Physical examination affords no information aside from partial deafness. Physical condition good,”

The caption on the first photo below is, ” Orphans of the Far North – Alaska defectives happily housed in the mild climate at Morningside.”

Record Group 126, Records of the Office of the Territories, National Archives II, College Park, MD

Record Group 126, Records of the Office of the Territories, National Archives II, College Park, MD

Record Group 126, Records of the Office of the Territories, National Archives II, College Park, MD