How did you choose your topic?  Please explain in as much detail as possible.

I was trying to think of an unique topic, and with Halloween approaching, and having our very own Tranquille farms, which was an old mental institution, in Kamloops, I thought it would be interesting to look into the lives and history of children that would have been institutionalized in similar places. Through various research, my topic has expanded to include children with physical disabilities, as well as mental. It has also come to include, not just children in institutions, but children treated at home and their families, immigrant children, family poverty, freak shows, and the difference in treatment between children and adults; all of which correlate well with each other.

How did you choose your sources?  Please explain your thinking that led you to choose the evidence you will use to interpret the topic.

I began by simply searching for articles about children in mental institutions, for which only a few sources popped up. I went with sources that best related to the time I was wanting to focus on, which was the 1950’s to 1970’s, and the location, which is Canada. I then used the references the sources listed to continue to find sources that would best relate to what I wanted. I also made sure to look at a variety of sources that focused on different aspects of my research, such as one source focusing on childhood immigration, another on family poverty, and another on Freak Shows. This way I can use sources that both cover a wide range of what I am looking at, and sources that are more pointed and go further in depth to specific areas of my research.

What assumptions did you bring to your research?  For example, what preconceived notions about the topic did you have before you began your research?  Did your sources cause you to reconsider those ideas?  Please explain in as much detail as possible.

I had assumed there would be a lot more scary stories about children in asylums, and stories that would border on horror and fantasy. Instead, I found very few children were really institutionalized, and the romantic notions of haunted childhood asylums were more likely to be found in movies than in scholarly writing. My sources had me reconsider my topic a bit, and caused me to expand what I wanted to research to cover a broader range of material.

How has your view of the past changed as a result of the research that you have done?  What unanswered questions about this topic do you still have?

My view of the past has changed as a result of my research to realize how much of Canadian history, and history in general, overlooks children and disadvantaged groups in our society. My understanding of the past has been opened up and become more inclusive, as I attempt to see history through the eyes and experiences of those society has previously overlooked as unimportant, but are in reality are key to a complete understanding of the past. I still want to know more about the small number of children that were institutionalized, and what life for them was like, as well as look further into the origins of freak shows and the experiences for the children there, and what life was like for them when they were not on display or performing.

What will you do differently next time?

Next time I will come into a topic with a broader subject, and narrow down my research to a tighter topic, instead of coming in with a narrow range of study and having to open up what I want to research as I get to know the subject better and see what available sources there are.

Image: Goats Beard, taken by Katryna Barone