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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.
Report Relative to an Asylum for Lunatics, New Jersey Legislature Joint Committee on Asylum for Lunatics, 1841
Courtesy National Library of Medicine
In the 19th century, many social reformers found that people deemed insane were in jails and poorhouses or faced homelessness. In this report, legislators in New Jersey called for the creation of an asylum. In 1848, the state opened the New Jersey State Hospital, its first public asylum.
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National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health, Health & Human Services
Freedom of Information Act , NLM Customer Support