Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

As of September 11, 2019, medical records will be open 125 years after the date of creation or after date closed, whichever is later. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires that individually identifiable health information of a decedent be protected for 50 years following the date of death of the individual (45 CFR 164.502(f)).

Protected health information (PHI) as defined under the Privacy Regulations issued under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) includes, but is not limited to, personally identifiable information such as names, addresses, and social security numbers. Restricted material may include, but is not limited to: commitment papers. Please contact Archives Research Services for further information.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Petersburg State Colony Commitment Papers, 1934-1955. Accession 41741, State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Transferred by Linda C. Coake, Southside Virginia Training Center, 26317 W. Washington St., Warehouse Building 120, Petersburg, Virginia, 23803, 14 February 2005.

Processing Information

The Petersburg State Colony commitment papers arrived at the Library of Virginia as part of a larger accession of records from Central State Hospital. Since the two institutions are in close proximity to one another, it is assumed that the records were accidently mixed together at some point in the past. The Petersburg State Colony records remain under the same accession number (41741), but are arranged and described separately from the records of Central State Hospital.

Biographical/Historical Information

During the earliest years of mental health treatment in Virginia, those with mental illness and/or mental retardation were grouped together at the state hospitals. However, during the first few decades of the 20th century an effort was made to move those with mental retardation to separate facilities. In March 1938, the Virginia General Assembly authorized the establishment of a colony for African-American feeble-minded people in Petersburg. The act established the colony as a state institution separate from Central State Hospital, the state hospital specifically for black citizens. Although it was a separate institution, the colony operated on the same grounds as the hospital. Known as the Petersburg State Colony, the new facility was given land located in Prince George County (later partly in Dinwiddie County as well), and assigned the task of admitting mostly younger patients with the propensity for academic and vocational training and future employment. The colony was advised to give preference to "indigent colored children who would be most likely to receive benefit from colony care and training." This often meant that older mentally retarded people were refused treatment, as were those younger patients who showed signs of aggression or other problems that would make them difficult to train.

In 1954, the Virginia General Assembly voted to change the institution's name from the Petersburg State Colony to the Petersburg Training School and Hospital. The name was changed again in 1971 to the Southside Virginia Training Center. The facility moved from its original buildings in the early 1960s, but still remains part of the Central State Hospital campus. It continues to specialize in providing services for Virginians with various levels of mental retardation. As a side note, in 1960 the land and structures formally known as the Petersburg Training School and Hospital were transferred to the College of William and Mary for the establishment of a two-year branch campus. In 1961, Richard Bland College opened its doors to students. The original hospital buildings remained, but were converted into classrooms and offices, many of which are still in use.

Scope and Content

Contains commitment papers for applicants to Petersburg State Colony. The papers include correspondence, psychological evaluations, IQ test results, Children's Bureau reports, juvenile case records, and Department of Mental Hygiene and Hospitals interrogatories, histories and exams. The envelopes that housed the papers contain the patient's name, date of commitment, and date of admission or reason for rejection. Affixed to the papers was a label stating that these cases were "inactive," but a definition of what this means was not included. It appears that some of the committed children were offered acceptance, but whether they were actually received is unclear.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into the following series:

Arranged chronologically by year of commitment (not admittance), and then alphabetically by patient last name within.

Commitment papers less than 125 years old are closed.