National Library of Medicine
National Library of Medicine
Menu

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.

A handwritten letter

Letter from Otto L. Schmidt, M.D., to the Asylum Investigating Committee of the Citizen’s Association of Chicago, November 14, 1884

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

In 1884, the Insane Asylum of Cook County, Illinois came under investigation for neglect and political corruption. In this letter, Otto L. Schmidt, a prominent physician, stated that “politics was the principle interest of the place and that medicine and the care of the patients were decidedly subordinate.” He revealed this information with the hope that the the investigation would spark change.