LETTER: ALS from inmate Lois Whittemore.
Woman’s Letter from New York “Lunatic Asylum”
[Health issues]. Whittemore, Lois. Autograph Letter Signed “Lois” to “Husband [Albert G. Whittemore].” Utica [Lunatic Asylum, New York]: May 29, 1853; one leaf, folded to make four pages; writing on all sides; with original transmittal envelope.
A touching and revealing letter written by Whittemore, a patient at the Utica Lunatic Asylum to her husband, with the purpose of being allowed to go home again after her treatment. She writes, in part:
I was very glad indeed that you think of coming for me soon. The time seems very long indeed to me now, I am getting so much better. I feel as though all that is necessary to make me well is to be at a quiet home. There is a great deal of noise and confusion here. Some of the patients are very crazy screaming, and pounding, or crying and mourning over their troubles almost incessantly, which makes me very nervous, sometimes. When it is still and quiet I feel quite smart...I feel as though home and friends and kindness is all that I need to cure me.
The Utica Lunatic Asylum opened its doors to patients in 1842, the first facility of its kind to attempt to treat mental patients, not just confine them. The hospital moved its grounds in 1978, but a portion of the first floor of the main building of the original asylum remains open for reuse as a Records Archive and Repository for the New York State Office of Mental Health.
At some point, Lois Whittemore apparently did get to go home. The 1860 Census records show her living with her husband in Napoli, New York.
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