Description: Dated ca. 1930-1939, this photograph shows the Athens State Hospital from Reservoir Hill in Athens, Ohio. In 1868, construction began on the Athens Asylum. Levi T. Scofield, a Cleveland architect designed the building and it formally opened on January 9, 1874. Within two years of opening, administrators renamed the Athens Asylum the Athens Hospital for the Insane. Over its history, the hospital underwent several name changes, including the Athens State Hospital, the Southeastern Ohio Mental Health Center, the Athens Mental Health Center, the Athens Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center, and the Athens Mental Health and Developmental Center. The Athens Asylum was one of several hospitals for the mentally ill operated by the State of Ohio. The asylum closed as a mental hospital in 1993. Ohio University eventually purchased the grounds and renamed the site The Ridges. The hospital is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally, the hospital's grounds consisted of a park-like setting, with ponds, gardens, and fountains. Doctors hoped that the beautiful surroundings would assist patients in recovering their mental health. Patients worked in the gardens, the greenhouse, the orchards, or the dairy, helped to tend livestock, or found employment in the asylum's carriage shop. The asylum also boasted a physical plant that heated the various buildings with steam heat. Many of the patients were never released from the hospital and were buried in the asylum's cemetery. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F14_003_001
Subjects: Mental health; State Hospitals--History--Ohio; Science and Technology; Medicine; Athens Hospital for the Insane (Athens, Ohio)
Places: Athens (Ohio); Athens County (Ohio)
 

Description: This photograph from the Columbus Citizen-Journal shows men and women during a meeting of the Franklin County Mental Health Association in Columbus, Ohio. The are identified as (standing, left to right) Ken Consaul, Wilma McCartney, Ralph E. Swearengin, Nelson Lancione, Dr. Richard Wenzel, Clyde N. Rogers, Martha King and Ada M. Smith, and (seated, left to right) Mrs. Marion S. Wells, Mrs. Carol E. Hyde and Mrs. David Gerstenfeld. Consaul displays a poster to the others that reads, "I have a mind to help -- The Mentally and Emotionally Ill." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: P339_B03F06_01_01
Subjects: Mental health; Health care; Social services; Medical care
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dated ca. 1850-1859, this is an ambrotype photograph of the Cleveland Sanitarium in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland State Hospital was authorized by an act of the Ohio legislature in 1852. It was the second state psychiatric hospital for long-term care created in Ohio. The location of the main building, completed in 1855, was in the township of Newburgh. In the spring of 1973 a special task force of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation began planning and implementing the discontinuation of inpatient care at the hospital. Cleveland State Hospital was completely phased out by the end of June 1974. By that time, the patients had been gradually transferred to other institutions. The old main building on Turney Road was demolished in 1977. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL03692
Subjects: Hospitals--Ohio; Other--Health Care; Mental illness--Treatment--Ohio
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)
 

Description: The caption reads : "This picture if the T. B. Sanitarium located 2 miles south of New Phila. Ohio - on Route 250". Sanitariums were used as long-term treatment facilities for ill patients, particularly those with tuberculosis (sometimes abbreviated T.B.) before antibiotics were made available. The renovated building is currently being used as the Tuscarawas Attention Center, serving girls and boys through a court order or from law enforcement officers. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F03_016_001
Subjects: Tuscarawas County (Ohio); Mental health services--Ohio; Tuberculosis; Hospitals--History--Ohio
Places: New Philadelphia (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads: “This picture is the T. B. Sanitarium located 2 miles South of New Phila. Ohio on Route 250.” Sanitariums were used as long-term treatment facilities for ill patients, particularly those with tuberculosis (sometimes abbreviated T.B.) before antibiotics were made available. The renovated building is currently being used as the Tuscarawas Attention Center, serving girls and boys through a court order or from law enforcement officers. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B14F03_019_001
Subjects: Tuscarawas County (Ohio); Mental health services--Ohio; Tuberculosis; Hospitals--History--Ohio
Places: New Philadelphia (Ohio); Tuscarawas County (Ohio)
 

Description: Dr. William Awl was born on May 24, 1799, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He studied medicine at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and throughout his career sought to improve medical care for the imprisoned, the blind, and the mentally ill. Awl helped organize the Ohio Medical Association. This organization lobbied the Ohio legislature to establish a state hospital for the mentally ill and a school for the blind. He was the first physician at the Lunatic Asylum in Columbus and served as its director until 1850. He died on November 19, 1876. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL04097
Subjects: Medicine--History; Other--Health Care; Mental illness--Treatment--Ohio
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)