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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.
Memorial to the Legislature of Massachusetts, Dorothea L. Dix, 1843
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Author and social reformer Dorothea Dix protested against the confinement of people with mental health conditions in prisons and almshouses in this address to the Massachusetts State Legislature. She took her campaign nationwide and worked to expose the widespread use of confinement in response to insanity. She took her findings to state legislatures across the country, using them as evidence to justify the creation of asylums.
National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health, Health & Human Services
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