Insane Asylums

Prior to the mid-1800s, people with mental illness were often housed in prisons or poorhouses with little to no treatment, until reformers like Dorothea Dix advocated for more humane conditions. This lead to the establishment of state-run asylums.

Thomas Story Kirkbride took this new way of thinking and developed what came to be known as 'The Kirkbride Plan'. He believed that people with mental illness could be treated - maybe cured - through humane care in carefully designed environments, rather through punishment or confinement.

Kirkbride developed a specific architectural model for asylums which featured long, symmetrical building with staggered wings which let in lots of natural light and fresh air. He built them in scenic, rural surroundings with separate wards based on patients' condition and gender. Kirkbride believed in kind, respectful interaction with patients, structured daily routines, and avoidance of physical restraints whenever possible.

From the 1840s to the late 1800s, dozens of Kirkbride-style hospitals

were built across the US. These institutions were initially seen as progressive and hopeful. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, overcrowding, underfunding, and lack of effective treatment led to deteriorating conditions.

During the early 20th century, controversial practices such as lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy were introduced, sometimes with harmful consequences. The mid-20th century saw a major shift with the deinstitutionalization movement, largely due to criticism of asylum conditions, which lead to many of the Kirkbride influenced hospitals to be closed and abandoned. This lead to a new type of problem with many mentally ill people ending up homeless or in prison.

The images within this collection pay a homage to those institutions which started as a bold, new, humane way to treat mental illness. Only to fall victim to overcrowding, underfunding and inhumane conditions. There is beauty in their decay, but also a reminder of the perils the most vulnerable among us have endured, and continue to endure, throughout history.