Unearthing Mansfield
Blog Posts
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Can and Should a Caption Ever Truly Be Objective?
Written by Payton James, in collaboration with the 2026 Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum Research Team. Questions or comments may be directed to paytonjames231@gmail.com. A historical photograph is often understood through the few words placed beneath it. A caption may seem like a simple description of what the photograph shows, but writing one involves more…
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What Really Haunts Mansfield Training School?
Written by Kiara Korten, in collaboration with the 2026 Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum Research Team. There is a strange irony that hangs over the abandoned buildings of the Mansfield Training School (MTS). Today, college students slip through broken windows for a thrill, YouTubers film themselves sprinting down dark hallways, and amateur ghost hunters whisper into its…
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Behind the Black Bar
Written by Payton James, in collaboration with the 2026 Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum Research Team. Questions or comments may be directed to paytonjames231@gmail.com. Look through enough archival photographs and one detail recurs: a small black rectangle laid over someone’s eyes. The black bar has become shorthand for anonymity, so familiar that we rarely ask…
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“The Surest, Most Humane, Most Economical”
Written by Payton James, in collaboration with the 2026 Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum Research Team. A 1975 report by Dr. Stephen Berardinelli brought Mansfield Training School’s scattered history into a single, coherent narrative. By recording the institution’s origins, leadership, and shifting philosophies, Dr. Berardinelli preserved a chronicle that might otherwise have disappeared. His…
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Disability Care in our Backyard
Written by Jess Holleran, in collaboration with the 2026 Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum Research Team.Contact: jessicaholleran20@gmail.com The University of Connecticut and Mansfield Training School Only 2 miles down the road from the University of Connecticut’s main campus sits the largely abandoned depot campus. It now houses the Puppet Arts Complex for UConn’s puppetry majors;…
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The Stories Are Still There
On November 9, 2025, journalist Emilia Otte published a feature in The CT Mirror examining the history and legacy of the Mansfield Training School. The article follows the work of UConn English professor Brenda Brueggemann and her students as they piece together the school’s complicated past. The team has worked to ensure this history is not forgotten…
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A First Day of Many Questions
By: Matt Iannantuoni My fellow researchers, Jess and Brenda, had found in the archive inventory list a box titled “Dismissal and legal action regarding Elly C. Fischer, Florence M. Nichols, James P. Purcell, and Dr. Helen T Warner (1942-5.)” Knowing that I am eventually bound for Law School, they suggested I read through it as…
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Ambiguity of Responsibility
By: Matthew Iannantuoni Enraptured by the findings of the termination papers, I dove back into the folders of the “Dismissal and legal action regarding Elly C. Fischer, Florence M. Nichols, James P. Purcell, Dr. Helen T. Warner” where I found another shred of evidence that seems to only muddy the story I was trying to…
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Hauntings and Horror: Institutionalization and the Urge to Embrace the Paranormal
By: Jess Gallagher “[D]espite the mostly positive, caring work that went on here (and at other similar facilities), there seems to be a story or two of negative incidents, any one of which is enough to initiate stories of restless souls and troubled spirits.” –Damned Connecticut “Mansfield Training School has gotten plenty of attention, for…
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Why I’m Here-Lillian
I fell in love with the archives after touring the university’s shelves. The vast amounts of material in particular drew me in, the amount of information held on those shelves was staggering. The stories hidden within the shelves fascinated me as did their preservation. As a history major I knew the importance of reading, of…
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Why I’m Here! -Paula
Hi, I’m Paula! 🙂 As a long-time museum lover, when Brenda reached out with the opportunity to apply to be part of the MTS team, I was immediately intrigued. I’ve always been interested in “untold stories” and the amplification of voices who historically haven’t been heard in different fields. For museums, this was a very…
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Why I’m Here: Where Have We Been, And Where Are We Going? -Jess
As we round closer and closer to the day this project (or at least the idea for it) began just two years ago, I honestly still can’t believe this is just the beginning. To me, the years we spent working, researching, writing, and thinking just blurred together. Every moment leading to this blog was a…