Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

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Use Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Virginia. Auditor of Public Accounts (1776-1928). Western State Hospital records, 1825-1884. Accession APA 130. State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Transferred from the Auditor of Public Accounts in 1913.

Biographical Information

In January 1825 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation providing for the construction of an asylum in the western part of the state. A Court of Directors was commissioned by the Governor to serve as the asylum's governing body and charged with purchasing a site close to the town of Staunton, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, on which to build an asylum to house the mentally ill of western Virginia. The institution, which became known as Western Lunatic Asylum, was the second mental health facility built in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The buildings and surrounding gardens were designed to embrace the idea of "moral therapy" for mentally ill patients by providing an aesthetically pleasing and tranquil atmosphere in which patients lived comfortably, exercised and worked outdoors.

Western Lunatic Asylum opened in 1828, accepting both male and female patients suffering from a variety of mental disorders. Common diagnoses included "hard study," "religious excitement," and "debility of the nervous system." The asylum was overseen by a Keeper, a Matron and a visiting physician during its earliest years. The hospital also employed attendants, gate keepers, night watch personnel, farm hands, and a steward who handled the day-to-day financial operations. The first superintendent appointed to oversee Western Lunatic Asylum was Dr. Francis T. Stribling. Dr. Stribling was a proponent of the moral therapy approach, and was a leader in the early mental health community. Dr. Stribling was one of the thirteen founders of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, which later became known as the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Stribling served as the hospital superintendent and as a physician until his death in 1874.

It should be noted that the hospital underwent a short-lived name change between 1861 and 1865, when it was known as Central Lunatic Asylum. (It should not be confused with an asylum of the same name later built in Petersburg, Virginia to house African American patients). From 1865 to 1894 the name was again Western Lunatic Asylum. However, in 1894 the General Assembly passed legislation changing the name to Western State Hospital.

Scope and Content

Records, 1825-1884, including accounts, checks, lists of patients, promissory notes, receipts, reports, and vouchers of the Western State Hospital located in Staunton, Virginia. The bulk of the records relate to the expenses for building the hospital as well as running and maintaining the hospital and inmates. The accounts and receipts, 1825-1884, detail purchases of materials (timber, rail, nails), food (beef, veal, sugar, molasses, butter), salaries of the keepers and doctors, hire of slaves, transportation costs to jailers for bringing patients to the hospital, clothing, repairs to the building, purchases of furniture, and other sundry items.

Of note are Reports of the Court of Directors, 1828-1833, which contain financial information, resolutions, and lists of patients. Also included is a ledger, 1828-1835, of patients, listing the patients name, residence, dates of commitment, and expenses.

For additional information and records please see the Western State Hospital Records, 1825-2000 (LVA Accession 31030).

Arrangement

This collection is arranged alphabetically by folder title.