At the Connecticut State Library, researchers can find documents pertaining to the state’s mental health institutions from the years 1868 to the present-day. Due to HPPA privacy laws, very few of these folders are available for access to the public. However, the Connecticut Valley Hospital Superintendent’s Scrapbooks are some of the only boxes available to view. Throughout multiple boxes in the archive, researchers gain a deeper understanding of the evolution of mental health treatment in the state throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Formerly known as the Connecticut General Hospital for the Insane, Connecticut Valley Hospital faced controversy throughout the years; overcrowding, budgetary issues, and ethics violations are only the tip of the iceberg. There are many examples throughout the scrapbooks of eugenics rhetoric despite the boxes missing data from 1900-1919. There is also no information pertaining to Connecticut’s sterilization law, in its absence, the silence is deafening.
In this digital archive, I have included documents that students and historians may find relevant to understanding the asylum system, incarceration, gender, class, and ability.
CVH Scrapbooks: Departments of Mental Health CSHI/CVH Records, A. Superintendents Scrapbooks Ca. 1867-1896, Accession #90-018, Box 1, Connecticut State Library.
CVH Scrapbooks: Departments of Mental Health CSHI/CVH Records, A. Superintendents Scrapbooks Ca. 1867-1896, Accession #90-018, Box 1, Connecticut State Library.