The Asylum Antiquarian

The true story of one child’s final days at The Ladd School.

The true story of one child’s final days at The Ladd School.

The true story of one child’s final days at The Ladd School.

The true story of one child’s final days at The Ladd School.

William Henry Miller was one of just thirty-three inmates committed to the Rhode Island School for the Feeble-Minded in Exeter.

The treatment of the insane, the prisoners, the feeble-minded and the poor in Rhode Island, in those dark days, was singularly backward.

Whatever really happened to Rita Bouchard one February morning in 1947 is a story that has very likely been taken to the grave.

A fascinating foray into the history of Rhode Island’s public hospitals and institutions

In a tangled grove of trees just barely visible above the detritus of the forest floor, rusting iron stakes extend as far as the eye can…