Autism and Google

Google always has something new to play with, but the news archive search may prove to be the most addicting. The news archives go back to the early 1800s! Although it's cool seeing some of those old news sources, the character recognition leaves a lot to be desired; I think my old Commodore 64 did a better job than a lot of these...

I started playing around with searches and then it hit me - when did autism start showing up in the news? The first understandable source I can find is the Frederick, Maryland News from 1949. According to the paper, "welfare state" and "autism" are now banned from press releases and speeches prepared by the Republican National Committee. Crazy! All you democrats should have a field day with that one! :)

The first description of autism I find is in the Salisbury Times (Maryland) from 1957. Although unrelated, I had to laugh at drug houses conservatively estimate that last year Americans took out 35 million prescriptions for happiness pills. Times haven't changed a bit! As for autism, the mention is only because the article is talking about the publishing of a Psychiatric Glossary, and of course autism starts with A...

The first real article shows up in 1960 in The Valley News from Van Nuys, CA. A good description is given, but the cause is listed as refrigerator moms. It is also described as wooden doll illness.

Articles grow very slowly until the early '80s and then they grow exponentially. There are approximately 2700 in the '80s, 12000 in the '90s, and then over 9000 in 2006 alone.

I'd love to hear about interesting articles from the past if you find one. Happy searching!