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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.

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Report of the Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Asylum for the Colored Insane, J.W. Vick, ca. 1881

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

In 1880, North Carolina opened an asylum for African Americans only. This report documents how the institution was built in a rural area of the state. The result was that people housed at the asylum often lived far from their homes in this remote setting.