Morningside Hospital, courtesy Library of Congress

Though most asylum superintendents believed that their home environments had caused patients’ insanity, superintendents also realized that establishing a type of normalcy in their institutions was important for a cure. Many boasted, of course, that their institutions had a homelike atmosphere and that the patients and staff were like a large family. Just like families, then, patients had routines that included regular schedules, chores, and the occasional festive break.

It was normally too difficult to take patients to church, but most asylums held some sort of church services on a regular basis. They also tried to provide occasional entertainments like dances, plays, and lectures, and celebrate holidays. Their hearts may have been in the right place, but it surely added to their patients’ heartache to spend a special occasion in an insane asylum instead of at home.

Christmas at Morningside Hospital, Portland, Oregon, circa 1920s, courtesy Oregon Historical Society

Inside Morningside

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