Archival Anthropology and Institutional Life in Early 20th Century California; A Case Study of the California Home for the Feeble-Minded (1900–1920)

Student: Fernando Pimentel

Faculty Mentor: Alexis Boutin

Anthropology

College of Education, Counseling, and Ethnic Studies

This research seeks to accomplish a few tasks; first, I incorporate genealogical methods and construct fictive biographical narratives to contextualize and understand the life courses of patients committed to the California Home for Feeble-minded Children, later renamed the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC). I simultaneously use historical archival methods to contextualize care and treatment outcomes—tracking the diagnostic grades that were systematically in use for much of this facility’s early history. This inquiry particularly focuses on the first two decades of the twentieth century, seeking to elucidate the lived experiences of inmates who perished during the influenza pandemic, which struck the institution in two waves: the first in November of 1918, and again the following winter. With redevelopment looming over the future of the site, stakeholder efforts to increase visibility and reduce the effects of systematic erasure have helped to guide recent academic inquiry at Sonoma State University (SSU). In integrating pedagogical approaches and theoretical assumptions found within the disciplines of education, human development, and anthropology, I explore the institution through an immersive lens which analyzes the outcomes of patients—tracking patient diagnostics through admission records, medical documents, and biennial reports.