Main content
Taunton Lunatic Asylum casebook
Notifications
Held at: Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia [Contact Us]19 S. 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Taunton State Hospital (originally Taunton Lunatic Asylum) was built in the 1850s to accommodate the overflow of the increasing amount of patients Worcester State Hospital was treating.
The idea of separating mental patients from the general hospital population took shape in the first quarter of the 19th century. For the most part, these places served an indigent and immigrant population.
Patient index included.
240 entries with patients' names, family histories, financial status, and mental state. The records contain detailed information about patients' occupations, whether taxes had ever been paid, original depature sites, ships sailed on, time in America, and extensive genealogies. A number died while in the hospital; many were dispersed to different locations. Occasionally, ship's passage was arranged for people to go home. Some records note the prognosis but in general, qualification for pauperhood was the overriding consideration.
- Publisher
- Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia