Garrison had a long-standing concern for people with
intellectual disabilities. Two of his siblings were considered "feeble-minded," as the disabled were then called. In the 1840s, his father had tried, unsuccessfully, to pass legislation requiring New Jersey to provide care for citizens with intellectual disabilities. During the younger Garrison's time in Pennsylvania, he began planning a private school for children with these disabilities. came to dominate thinking on custodial care. He diversified the school's curriculum and created a medical staff including a neurologist, an ophthalmologist, a gynecologist, a pathologist, an otologist, a laryngologist, and specialists in speech defects. But Garrison's interests extended beyond the needs of children. Garrison was instrumental in creating the Vineland Institution for Feeble-minded Women. It provided custodian care for adults and opened in 1888, just across the street from the Training School. He served for six months as that Institution's superintendent until a permanent replacement was selected. In the late nineteenth century, the treatment of
epilepsy was in its infancy. In 1896, Garrison persuaded the
New Jersey Legislature to appropriate $58,000 to create the State Village for Epileptics in
Skillman, New Jersey. Garrison served as a Trustee and Secretary of that institution until his death. By 1898, Garrison realized that his health was failing, and began a search for someone who could carry on his work at the Training School. He chose
Edward R. Johnstone, the Principal of instruction at a similar institution in Indiana. Johnstone, became Vice Principal at Vineland and, upon Garrison's death, succeeded him as Principal. In 1902, he was named superintendent and served in that capacity until his death in 1945. In a 1988 history of the Training School at Vineland, Eugene Dol argued, “it is probably not an exaggeration to say that for the first half of the 20th century it dominated the field of mental retardation worldwide.” == References ==