Digital Gallery

Discover...

In the 19th and 20th centuries, reformers in the United States and Europe built asylums in response to a range of social issues including disability - mental health, and alcoholism. These documents and images from the NLM Digital Collections bring to life the day to day experiences of people at these sites: the conditions of the asylums and the limits on liberty that many people in them experienced.

Comic-style illustration of rooms and buildings with people in an asylum

Earlswood Asylum, T. S. Crowther, ca. 1800s

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

The Earlswood Asylum in Redhill, England was the first institution for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Britain. Administrators often imposed strict work regimes on individuals there in the belief that it would make them into productive citizens in society and would benefit the asylum.

Full Item