Tag Archives: St. Elizabeths

Building Places of Madness

Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, courtesy National Institutes of Health

In the early part of the 19th century, moral treatment (see May 18, 2010 post) included the idea that patients’ surroundings could contribute to their treatment and healing .

Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride (July 31, 1809-Dec. 16, 1883), one of the founders of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane (which later became the American Psychiatric Association), developed a building plan that he felt would improve the asylum experience for patients. It consisted of a centralized administration building with a wing on either side, one for males and one for females.

Kirkbride believed that careful building design could help with treatment. Each ward was set back a little from the previous one so that every room would have fresh air and sunlight. Grounds were lushly landscaped, and the buildings themselves were set in rural environments to give nature a chance to heal tired minds.

Unfortunately, these huge buildings became victims of overcrowding, which then led to many abuses. They fell out of favor by the end of the century. Below are two examples of the “Kirkbride Plan” for asylums.

St. Elizabeths, (1909-1933?) courtesy Library of Congress

Danvers State Lunatic Hospital

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A Female Crusader, Part Two

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After Dorothea Dix visited a jail in 1841 and discovered the appalling conditions that mentally ill people suffered there, she began to gather information to present to legislators. She visited every jail and poorhouse in Massachusetts (her home state) and compiled a graphic report. Dix described a woman who was tearing her skin off, bit by bit, with no one to stop her. She had seen a man confined to an outbuilding (presumably at a hospital) next to the “dead room” so that he saw only corpses. Others she had seen were locked into rooms without heat, daylight or fresh air.

She was immediately called a liar, but newspapers reprinted excerpts of her report. She persuaded a group of men to take up her cause, and they were able to persuade the legislature to appropriate more money for the state hospital for the insane.

During her lifetime, Dix played a direct role in founding 32 mental hospitals. One in particular, the Government Hospital for the Insane, (later named St. Elizabeths) provided “the most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and the District of Columbia.”

From 43rd Congress, First Session, courtesy Library of Congress

One of St. Elizabeths’ doctors became superintendent of the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians.

Men Working in Broom Factory at Oak Forest, IL Poorhouse, circa 1915, courtesy Library of Congress

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Headlines and Horrors

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Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum

The public has always enjoyed a good scandal, and madhouses of the 19th and 20th centuries sometimes provided horrific fodder for newspapers eager to sensationalize problems. Nellie Bly’s stay at Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum was well publicized, but abuses existed elsewhere as well. Continue reading →

Bad Management

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Investigations into insane asylums, hospitals, prisons, and other public institutions were nothing unusual. Any place that houses unhappy inmates will generate plenty of complaints–some warranted and some not.

Canton Asylum had received a routine inspection in early 1903 and apparently passed with little comment on anyone’s part. It was undoubtedly still so new and small that there wouldn’t have been much to find wrong.

However, an established institution in the nation’s capitol couldn’t avoid scrutiny. In 1906, St. Elizabeths Hospital was targeted by the newly established Medico-Legal Society, who said that St. Elizabeths abused patients. Congress investigated the allegations and gathered over 2,000 pages of testimony–which was often lively, pointed, and contradictory. Some of the patients and their families spoke up on behalf of the care they received at St. Elizabeths, and the motivations of the Medico-Legal Society were questioned in the city’s newspapers.

Patients at St. Elizabeths, circa 1917, courtesy Library of Congress

Congressional Report on St. Elizabeths, National Archives

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Canton Asylum’s First Patients

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On January 10, 1903, the superintendent at St. Elizabeths hospital in Washington, D.C. received permission to release its Indian patients to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians in South Dakota. The first patients were:

Chu-rah-rah-he-kah; Pawnee from the Ponca Agency; suffering from chronic mania

Joseph D. Marshall; Sioux from the Rose Bud Agency; suffering from chronic epileptic dementia

Miguel Maxcy; Mesa Grande froom the Carlisle Indian School; suffering from chronic meloncholia

Robert Brings Plenty; Sioux from the Pine Ridge Agency; suffering from chronic epileptic dementia

John Woodruff; Sioux-Mulatto from the Pine Ridge Agency; suffering from chronic meloncholia

Arch Wolf; Cherokee transferred from the penitentiary at Brooklyn New York; suffering from acute melancholia

These patients arrived at the Canton Asylum under escort of Dr. J.E. Toner, who received $157.71 reimbursement for expenses.

Train, circa 1900, courtesy Library of Congress