The Braddock Disabilities Studies Collection is a specialized group of materials focused on the history of disabilities and the experiences of disabled persons. The collection was donated to the Strauss Library in 2019 by the Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities on behalf of Dr. David Braddock, who personally assembled the collection over many years.

The collection includes books spanning a wide range of publication years that document the development of psychiatry and the historical treatment practices for people with disabilities. Books in this collection are integrated into the general library collection, not housed separately. Items can be discovered by searching in Library Search using the keywords “Dr. David Braddock Disabilities Studies Collection” or the “Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities” as a phrase. Each item also has local subject headings “History of Disabilities” and “History of Disabled Persons” added to the catalog record. To distinguish an item from this collection on the shelves, a custom bookplate created by library staff identifies it as part of the Braddock Collection, and a blue label is placed above the call number. 

In addition to the books in this collection, the library has an archive of other materials included in the donation from Dr. Braddock and the Coleman Institute. Also in the donation were a collection of images related to disabilities and an extensive collection of historical pamphlets related to the history of psychiatry, many on the history of the institutions that housed disabled persons. 

Selected materials is available online in the Braddock Collections, a part of the CU Anschutz Digital Collections.

To request copies of images from our collections, click here to access the online request form.