Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane / Central State Hospital

Diversional Occupation, Central State Hospital, Davis Bottom, Superintendent of Public Printing, 45th Annual Report of Central State Hospital

In recent years, the history of the institution and its patients has received the attention of scholars including this examination of race and mental health in Virginia: “In 1869 the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia passed legislation that established the first asylum in the United States to care exclusively for African-American patients. Known as Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane and located in Richmond, Virginia, the asylum began to admit patients in 1870. This thesis explores three aspects of Central State Hospital’s history during the nineteenth century: attitudes physicians held toward their patients, the involuntary commitment of patients, and life inside the asylum. Chapter One explores the nineteenth-century belief held by southern white physicians, including those at Central Lunatic Asylum, that freed people were mentally, emotionally, and physically unfit for freedom. Chapter Two explains the involuntary commitment of African Americans to Central Lunatic Asylum in 1874. Chapter Three considers patient life at the asylum by contrasting the expectation of “Moral Management” care with the reality of daily life and treatment.”

“Race and Mental Illness at a Virginia Hospital: A Case Study of Central Lunatic Asylum for the Colored Insane, 1869 – 1885” [thesis] by Caitlin Douchette Foultz, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 @ https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4864&context=etd

Asylum Project
http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Central_Lunatic_Asylum

Central State Hospital
http://www.csh.dbhds.virginia.gov/about.html

Virginia State Hospitals for Mental Health (1934)
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Virginia_State_Hospitals_for_Mental_Patients_1934

 

On February 25, 2019, I added the following:
Some — not all — of the records of Central State Hospital are available:

Library of Virginia: A Guide to the Records of Central State Hospital, 1874-1961
http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva/vi00940.xml

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): Central State Hospital
http://www.csh.dbhds.virginia.gov/FoiA.html

There’s talk of a digitization project that would provide online access to the records.
I’m trying to determine its status.
Journal and Guide: Project on Central State Asylum Is Topic of Talk, March 1, 2018
http://thenewjournalandguide.com/project-central-state-asylum-topic-talk/