Accepted and Rejected: Late Nineteenth-Century Application for Admission to the Scottish National Institution for the Education of Imbecile Children

Parents and guardians seeking places at the SNI, an institution for their mentally impaired children, represented Scotland’s full social spectrum, ranging from the wealthy classes to the most impoverished. Admission was not a ‘given’; some categories of impairment were refused, while hopeful cases were more likely to gain admission. Voices in this process ranged from the powerful influences of people with status, to the muted deferential voices of poor parents, and the almost total silence of the voices of the children. In tracing life journeys of children who were admitted, and of children who were denied entry, this chapter endeavours to hear the silent voices of Scotland’s mentally impaired children, and tap into their experiences, in the late nineteenth century.