Note: This post originally appeared on the In Her Own Right: A Century of Women’s Activism, 1820-1920 blog on 30 March 2020.
Many of the materials included as part of In Her Own Right represent women who fought for equal rights, jobs, and education in a man’s world. However, the Sophia Perry diaries give voice to another overlooked part of the population: (women) patients in mental institutions.
During the 19th century, if someone wanted to place a family member in the asylum, the ease with which one could do so was quite astonishing. According to admissions forms in the Historical Medical Library’s collection, all one needed was the signature of a physician stating that the prospective patient is insane.1 Many patients never got to have a voice in their own care, and were faced with living lives away from their families in asylums. At the time, many women were placed in mental institutions for behavior that did not mesh very well with traditional ‘feminine traits’ favored by the male-dominated society.2 Causes of insanity included “childbirth,” “suppression of menses,” and even “light reading.”3
Sophia Perry lived in Gorham, Maine, and became a patient at the Maine Insane Hospital in Augusta, Maine, in 1879. She died in 1908 at the hospital from acute enteritis (inflammation of the small intestine). Her diaries offer a glimpse of a woman’s life in the 19th century. She kept the first through third diaries while living in Gorham. These diaries describe the weather and local events of the day. Occasionally, larger events are recorded, the most noteworthy being the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. She also recorded lists of marriages, deaths, and her correspondence.
The fourth diary was written during her time at the Maine Insane Hospital. She wrote about her daily life, her interactions with doctors and other patients, and to whom she sent letters. Stuck in between the pages of her diary are scraps of fabric, but without much context as to why she saved them. Perry wrote quite a bit of poetry, much of it seemingly Christian in nature. Her diaries are a fascinating, rare look at patient life in a 19th century mental hospital.
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1 The McLean Asylum for the Insane application for admission of patients (Pam 14542), circa 19th century. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.
2 Pouba, Katherine and Ashley Tianen. “Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women’s Admission to Asylums in United States of America.” Oshkosh Scholar I (April 2006): 95-103.
3 Annual report of the trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital at Taunton (6C 91, vol. 1), 1856. Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.