Difference between revisions of "Main Page"
M-Explorer (talk | contribs) |
|||
Line 18: | Line 18: | ||
[[Special:AWCforum|Message Boards]] '''·''' [[:Category:Asylum Books|Books]] '''·''' [[:Category:Articles With Videos|Videos]] | [[Special:AWCforum|Message Boards]] '''·''' [[:Category:Asylum Books|Books]] '''·''' [[:Category:Articles With Videos|Videos]] | ||
|} | |} | ||
+ | <!-- Preservation Alert --> | ||
+ | {|style="width:100%; background:#FFCC00; margin-top:1.2em; border:2px solid #ccc;" | ||
+ | | style="width:320px; text-align:center; white-space:nowrap; color:#000;" | | ||
+ | <div style="font-size:250%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#000;"><b>Preservation Alert</b></div> | ||
+ | <div style="font-size:125%; border:none; margin:0; padding:.1em; color:#000;">The [[Fergus Falls State Hospital|Fergus Falls]] town council is considering plans to demolish most of the historically listed [[Kirkbride Planned Institutions|Kirkbride building.]]</div> | ||
+ | <div style="top:+0.2em; font-size:150%;">[https://www.facebook.com/groups/146744348673366/ Click here to visit the Friends of Kirbride Facebook group to help save the entire structure.]</div> | ||
+ | |} | ||
+ | <br> | ||
{{Portal:Mission Statement}} | {{Portal:Mission Statement}} | ||
{| cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" | {| cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" |
Revision as of 08:49, 18 April 2012
__NOTITLE__
|
We need your help!
|
Overview · Editing · Help · How To Upload Images |
Preservation Alert
The Fergus Falls town council is considering plans to demolish most of the historically listed Kirkbride building.
|
Mission Statement
The Mission
The mission of this site is to archive both historical and current information on asylums across the United States and around the world.
The Statement
This site is dedicated to the history of asylums in all forms. The term of asylum is applied to not only what is commonly thought of: mental hospitals, but can also be applied to sanatoriums, state training schools, reform schools, almshouses, and orphanages. These institutions have and continue to play a major part in today's society.
Everyone throughout the United States and in many other countries has in one way or another felt the touch of these institutions. These places have both directly and indirectly affected people and their families. They have shaped lives and created many popular myths about them.
With all that in mind, this site was created to help in the historical research of any institutions that can be classified as an asylum. It was created for both serious researchers, those who are doing genealogical research, and people with an interest in asylums.
Featured Article Of The WeekBryce HospitalThe planning for a state hospital for the mentally ill in Alabama began in 1852. The new facility was planned from the start to utilize the "moral architecture" concepts of 1850's activists Thomas Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix. Architect Samuel Sloan designed the imposing Italianate building after Kirkbride's model plan. The construction was an important source of employment in Reconstruction-era Tuscaloosa. The facility was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Dix's reformist ideas, in particular, are credited as the driving force behind the construction of the "Alabama Insane Hospital," which was later renamed for its first superintendent, Peter Bryce, a 27-year-old psychiatric pioneer from South Carolina. His tenure was marked by absolute discipline among the staff of the hospital. He demanded that patients be given courtesy, kindness and respect at all times. The use of shackles, straitjackets and other restraints was discouraged, and finally abandoned altogether in 1882. Various work programs and other activities were encouraged, including farming, sewing, maintenance and crafts. Between 1872 and the early 1880s, some of the patients wrote and edited their own newspaper, called The Meteor. These writings provide a rare inside look at life in a progressive mental institution in the late 19th century. At that time, Bryce's management and commitment to "scientific treatments" was recognized around the country as in a class of its own. During the 20th century, however, the patient population expanded while standards of care fell to abysmal levels. Alabama Governor Lurleen Wallace was appalled after viewing the facility in February 1967, and earnestly lobbied her husband, George Wallace (who held the actual power of her governorship) for more funds for the institution. Click here for more... Featured Image Of The WeekMount Vernon Hospital for the colored insane, now known as Searcy Hospital, was opened in May 1902. Prior to the opening of the Mount Vernon facility, African American patients were maintained in segregated quarters at Bryce State Hospital in Tuscaloosa, which opened in1860. The 1863 annual report reflects an all white patient population. However, by 1868 annual reports indicates a payment of $1900 by the Freedman’s Bureau to care for the twenty-six African American patients at the facility. By the end of 1902, four hundred African American patients were at the Mount Vernon facility.
|
Recent Message Board PostsHello,
In this space you normally would see our forum. This had been a hold over from earlier days before we had a Facebook page. Just prior to our server issues regular users had been barely using the forum with the majority of new posts from anonymous users asking genealogy questions or spammers. The old forum software does not work with our new version while the new forum software does not carry over old comments to the new forum. As a result, the forum will be discontinued in favor of our Facebook page. If you have questions or comments you can ask them there. Upcoming Events Calendar<calendar name="Upcoming Events" disablestyles disableaddevent/> |
Featured Video
Asylum News (news you can edit!)
February 7, 2016 Clarinda struggles to fill former hospital
- The 128-year-old former mental health institute in the small southwest Iowa city of Clarinda isn’t your typical real estate opportunity, and so far no one is rushing to move in. More than seven months after the state closed the Clarinda Mental Health Institute, much of the sprawling building remains empty, including entire floors that haven’t been used in decades.
February 1, 2016 Efforts continue to preserve other parts of former Peoria State Hospital grounds
- Christina Morris happily remembers Sunday morning breakfasts with her grandparents, followed by visits to the peaceful cemeteries on the grounds of the Peoria State Hospital, where some family members are buried. “My interest with the state hospital started when I was about 7 years old,” Morris said in a recent interview. “When I would come onto the grounds (my grandfather) would say that this was a place of special people. (By special) I thought he meant giants, because these buildings were so big and beautiful and immaculate to me. I just was enamored by how beautiful it was.”
January 7, 2016 That Time The United States Sterilized 60,000 Of Its Citizens
- Not too long ago, more than 60,000 people were sterilized in the United States based on eugenic laws. Most of these operations were performed before the 1960s in institutions for the so-called “mentally ill” or “mentally deficient.” In the early 20th century across the country, medical superintendents, legislators, and social reformers affiliated with an emerging eugenics movement joined forces to put sterilization laws on the books.
January, 6, 2016 Pa. hires firm to develop plan for Harrisburg State Hospital site
- Harrisburg, PA-The state has hired a Lancaster planning company to help it figure out what to do with the former Harrisburg State Hospital, which closed 10 years ago. Since closing in 2006, the hospital complex has housed state workers from the state police, Department of General Services and the Department of Human Services. It is now part of the larger DGS Annex property, which encompasses 303 acres across Harrisburg and Susquehanna Township.