It’s relatively easy to find information about the adults who governed the institution, but locating details of inmates’ lives is much more challenging. Partial information about some inmates can be found in the public record, primarily in newspaper accounts and in the records of organizations such as the Children’s Aid Society and the Vermont Conference on Social Work. Taken together, information from such sources paints a different picture of the Industrial School as a place where boys and girls, ranging in age from six to eighteen, left behind familiar people and places to live regimented lives.
Whether children were committed for delinquency, for being orphans, or for living in homes deemed unsuitable by authorities, almost all ended up at the Industrial School because their families were poor. See what you can learn about the child inmates of the Vermont Industrial School from the vignettes featured below.
