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Asylum Projects


The Mission

The mission of this site is to archive both historical and current information on asylums across the United States and around the world.

The Statement

This site is dedicated to the history of asylums in all forms. The term of asylum is applied to not only what is commonly thought of: mental hospitals, but can also be applied to sanitariums, state training schools, reform schools, orphanages, and in a limited form prisons. These institutions have and continue to play a major part in today's society.

Everyone throughout the United States and in many other countries has in one way or another felt the touch of these institutions. These places have both directly and indirectly affected people and their families. They have shaped lives and created many popular myths about them.

With all that in mind, this site was created to help in the historical research of any institutions that can be classified as an asylum. It was created for both serious researchers, those who are doing genealogical research, and people with an interest in asylums.

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Asylum Projects presents a Recent News and Blog Entries section with the latest news and information.



The Walter E. Fernald State School, the oldest institution for the retarded in the country, began operation in Massachusetts in 1848 as the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children.

Prior to the establishment of the school, the governor had appointed three Commissioners of Idiocy to inquire on the "condition of idiots in the commonwealth and if anything can be done for them" (Resolves 1846, c 117). The commission's report, written by Samuel G. Howe of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind led to an experimental school being funded for three years by the state (Resolves 1848, c 65) and administered by the trustees of the Perkins Institution. The legislature incorporated it as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded? Youth in 1850 (St 1850, c 150).Click here for more.









Created by: admin. Last Modification: Monday 23 of November, 2009 03:42:52 MST by admin.

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Gallery: Florida State Hospital