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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.
Two Years and Three Months in the New York Lunatic Asylum at Utica: Together with the Outlines of Twenty Year’s Peregrinations in Syracuse, Phebe B. Davis, 1855
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
Phebe Davis was hospitalized at the New York Lunatic Asylum from 1850 to 1853. After she left, she wrote critically about her experience and stated that her confinement in the asylum stemmed from stepping outside the bounds of socially acceptable behavior. This theme appeared in a number of writings by women housed in asylums in the 19th century.
National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health, Health & Human Services
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