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Exhibition Collection

Portrait of a white woman.

Dorothea Dix, ca. 19th century

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Dorothea Dix, a teacher and author, became a strong advocate for asylums. During the 19th century, Dix helped found over 30 asylums around the country to prevent people deemed insane from being jailed or placed in poorhouses.

Painting of a building.

Design proposal of the Sheppard Asylum near Baltimore, MD by Calvert Vaux, 1860

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Calvert Vaux, architect and landscape designer, drew this initial proposal for the Sheppard Asylum with large bay windows for fresh air and sunlight. This “Kirkbride” plan was a popular design in the mid–19th century. The design aimed to cure people of their mental ailments through sunlight, privacy, and tranquility in a rural setting.

Painting of a crowd, mostly standing, looking at a man breaking chains from the wrist of a seated figure on the ground.

Pinel Unchains the Insane, illustration by Robert A. Thom, 1960

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

This illustration shows French physician Phillipe Pinel observing while asylum superintendent Jean–Baptiste Pussin removes chains from people at an asylum in Paris, 1795.

Pinel believed insanity was curable and rejected the use of physical restraints. Instead, he emphasized moral treatment which sought to heal people through self–discipline and the rigid environment of the asylum.

Illustration of a woman being carried by two men onto a train to the left. On the right is a large crowd.

Illustration from Modern persecution; or, Insane asylums unveiled, Elizabeth P. W. Packard, 1873

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

In front of a crowd of onlookers, a sheriff forced Elizabeth Packard onto a train bound for an asylum in Jacksonville, Illinois. Packard’s husband had her committed because of her differing views on religion. After her release, Packard campaigned nationwide for the legal protection of people in asylums.

A woman sits in a rocking chair.

A patient at St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, D.C., 1955

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

St. Elizabeths Hospital was a federally funded mental hospital. It reached its peak population of 7,529 people in 1955, one of the largest in the country.

In the 1950s, mental health advocacy and changes in psychiatry led groups like the American Psychiatric Association and the National Institute of Mental Health to call for alternatives to institutions like St. Elizabeths. They proposed outpatient clinics and community mental health centers.

A man in distress in a hot bathtub.

Illustration from The Chicago Tribune, March 16th, 1896

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Staff negligence at the Illinois State Hospital caused Julian Grabowski, who was paralytic, to die from scalding water in a bathtub.

As asylums grew, journalists and physicians exposed abuses that included violence, lack of clothing and food, and the use of physical restraints.

Groups of African Americans sitting at several tables

African American Ward at St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington D.C., ca. 1915

Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration

Asylums regularly denied admissions to many African Americans or placed them in separate and inferior wards. This is a dining hall at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. designated for African American residents.

Men standing on a street holding signs.

Eugenics demonstration on Wall Street, photograph by Underwood & Underwood, 1915

Courtesy Wisconsin Historical Society

In this photo, men hired by a medical journal hold signs in 1915 fostering fears that mental health conditions were dangerous.

This public attitude reinforced beliefs at the time that asylums should protect society from people with mental health conditions.

Several women standing in a room.

Psychopathic Ward, lithograph by Robert Riggs, 1945

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

This illustration shows women in a locked ward of the Philadelphia State Hospital in 1945. Investigations into this hospital led reformers to critique mental hospitals as prison–like, with bars on the windows and little treatment.

Portrait of a white man.

Clifford Beers, ca. 20th century

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Clifford Beers founded an advocacy organization that became Mental Health America. In his 1907 book, A Mind That Found Itself, Beers described his experience as a patient at an asylum. He critiqued the physical abuse he experienced there, the institution’s untrained attendants, and the use of physical restraints and seclusion.

Several white men and one woman standing behind another man at a desk signing a paper.

Bill Signing – S. 1576, Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Center Construction Act, photograph by Abbie Rowe, 1963

Courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

President John F. Kennedy signed legislation in 1963 that allocated funds for new community mental health centers.

An African American man sitting on a bench outside.

George Elder in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, photograph by Nelson Martinez, 1971

Courtesy Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries

In 1942, two doctors certified George Elder as insane and a judge committed him to the Philadelphia State Hospital.

Elder remained at the hospital until 1970, but when he moved into the community, he had few resources to support himself. Stories like his caused policymakers to work to provide social services alongside mental health care.

A white man at a podium giving a speech.

Bertram S. Brown, M.D. giving a speech to the National Association for Mental Health in Los Angeles, CA, 1970

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Bertram Brown, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) from 1970 to 1977, was a key figure in the national effort to redefine and expand mental health services. Brown’s work at NIMH addressed mental health conditions and substance abuse by means of community support services and mental health centers.

A page of text.

Introductory remarks, Bertram S. Brown, M.D., Director of National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 1977

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

In 1977, the NIMH held a press conference introducing the Community Support Program. This initiative called for more social supports to help recovery in people’s home communities. It became core to the National Plan for the Chronically Mentally Ill, which over time caused many states to work towards better integrating mental health and social services.

A Native American man escaping a building from a window.

Still from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Miloš Forman, 1975

Courtesy The Saul Zaentz Company, © 1975, 2008

At the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the character Chief Bromden broke through the locked windows of the mental hospital and ran towards freedom.

This movie, adapted from Ken Kesey’s 1963 novel of the same name, prompted more people to think of mental hospitals as restrictive of people’s freedom. This concept became central as the courts established new civil rights for people in mental hospitals, making it more difficult to confine people against their will.

Portrait of a white woman.

Judi Chamberlin, ca. 1985

Courtesy Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Judi Chamberlin was an activist who fought against the coercive treatment of people with psychiatric histories. Her experience of confinement at the Rockland State Hospital in New York led her to write On Our Own in 1978.

Her work inspired a new vision of self–help and peer–support services run by people with psychiatric histories.

Two men injured lie on the ground while others surround them. One man standing in front holds a gun and looks on to the right.

Chaos outside the Washington Hilton Hotel after the assassination attempt on President Reagan, photograph by Michael Evans, 1981

Courtesy Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum

Many were wounded on the ground outside the Washington Hilton Hotel after John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The jury found Hinckley “not guilty by reason of insanity” and the court committed him to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. The case fueled legal changes that made it easier to incarcerate people with mental health conditions for crimes, rather than place them in mental hospitals.

A man and woman stand speaking to one another outside a prison cell.

U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) physician and nurse at the entrance to a locked area at a prison facility, ca. 1970s

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

PHS staff provided medical care in federal prisons. As the number of people with mental health conditions in jails grew, medical personnel across the country increasingly provided psychiatric services behind bars.

Infographic with two female icons, small and large, and two male icons, small and large surrounded by text.

Statistics from On Life Support: Public Health in the Age of Mass Incarceration, Vera Institute of Justice, 2014

Courtesy Vera Institute of Justice

People with mental health conditions increasingly went to jail for misdemeanors and drug offenses. These trends worsened as lawmakers made cuts to the welfare system.

People with mental health conditions who struggled to access housing, employment, and medical services became more vulnerable to the growing criminal legal system.

Two African American men lying in a room with the word “Recovery” on the wall.

A mental health division in the Cook County Jail in Chicago, IL, photograph by Lili Kobielski

Courtesy Lili Kobielski

At one time, the Cook County Jail held 9,000 people each day and about one–third of them had a mental health condition.

Portrait of an African American man.

And then I got busted, poster featuring Mercury Morris, National Institute on Drug Abuse, ca. 1980s

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Former professional football player Mercury Morris became a spokesman for substance abuse recovery. In 1982, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking. The courts later overturned his sentence.

The War on Drugs brought harsh sentences for drug offenses like this one, which disproportionately affected African American communities. These new laws further criminalized substance abuse, which often coincided with mental health diagnoses.

Text surrounded by the tops of heads.

Postcard for World Mental Health Day, ca. 1990s

Courtesy National Library of Medicine

Mental health advocacy organizations have fought against the discrimination of people with mental health conditions in housing, employment, and the criminal legal system.

Two police officers looking at a person on the left whose hand sticks out from behind a wall.

Police officers with a Crisis Intervention Team in Memphis speaking with a person involved in a complaint, photograph by Stan Carroll, featured in The Commercial Appeal

Courtesy The Commercial Appeal/USA Today

Crisis Intervention Team members received training in de–escalation techniques for mental health emergencies. Police departments nationwide have implemented this model and agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health have studied its effectiveness.

A page of text from a book.

Principles of Community–based Behavioral Health Services for Justice–Involved Individuals, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Courtesy Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

SAMHSA published this report on ways that mental health providers could support people with mental health conditions involved in the criminal legal system.

The National Institute of Mental Health has also studied programs that support people’s re–entry to the community after prison. This research has sought to break the cycle of imprisonment that many people with mental health conditions faced.

A woman holding a hand–made sign.

Unidentified protester at an American Psychiatric Association conference, photograph by Tom Olin

Courtesy Tom Olin Collection

Activists have called for a voice and a choice in their recovery. They have worked to protect the rights of people with mental health conditions.

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