Elm Hill Private School and Home for the Education of Feeble-Minded Youth was founded in 1848 in Barre, Massachusetts, by physician Hervey Backus Wilbur (1820-1883). Wilbur was heavily influenced by the ideas of Edward Séguin (1812-1880), who believed in the instructability of the feeble-minded. Originally called the Institution for the Education of Idiots, Imbeciles, and Children of Retarded Development of Mind, Elm Hill was the first institution of its kind in the United States. Set in bucolic central Massachusetts, Elm Hill put Séguin's ideas, most completely put forth in his book Traitement moral, hygiène et éducation des idiots, into practice.
Wilbur left Elm Hill in 1851 to establish a similar but state-sponsored school in New York. His assistant, George Brown (1823-1892), took over the institution. Dr. Brown, a graduate of the University of New York Medical Department, had arrived in Barre in November 1850 with his wife Catherine Wood Brown. Never accepting more than 100 residents, and remaining private, Elm Hill was run by the Brown family until it ceased operation. George Artemas Brown (1858-1942), who graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York (Columbia Medical School), was the second Brown to become superintendent. George Artemas' son George Percy Brown (1888-1971), who went to Yale and then Harvard Medical School, took over from his father. Elm Hill closed in August 1946.
From the guide to the Elm Hill Private School and Home for the Education of Feeble-Minded Youth records, Bulk, 1870-1920, 1842-1951, (College of Physicians Historical Medical Library)
