Introduction
Picture a maze. The first steps in the path may start off clear and confident, but soon they hit a wall or false turn and must retreat and reevaluate. As with a maze, the response to mental illness throughout history has seen shifts and turns of imperfect progress.
This exhibit explores both societal and medical treatments of mental illness in the US from the 18th century to today. It highlights institutional confinement, medical and pharmaceutical treatments, the development of child psychiatry, and the shift to police as mental illness first responders. Patterns of advancement and retreat carry through each case, showing the struggle to properly treat mental illness continues today.
This exhibit was created to complement the National Library of Medicine’s traveling exhibit, Care & Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health, on display in the Galter Library atrium February 9 - March 21, 2026. Details about that exhibit are available here.
Events
Galter Library will host multiple events in conjunction with this exhibit and the NLM exhibit.
Curator Tour of the exhibit: Tuesday, February 24, 12pm - 1pm. Register here.
Special Collections Open House: Tuesday, March 3, 11am - 4pm. The Special Collections Reading Room is located on the second floor, at the top of the stairs (Room 2-411).
Exhibit of memoirs written by people hospitalized for mental illness in Dollie’s Corner, available to check out. Curated by Lindsey O’Brien.
Art activities in our craft corner. Stay tuned for exact dates!
Credits
Curated by Emma Florio, MLIS, Archives & Research Specialist; Katie Lattal, MA, Special Collections Librarian; Corinne Miller, MLIS, Clinical Librarian; Lindsey O’Brien, MSLIS, Cataloging & Metadata Librarian; and Annie Wescott, MLIS, Research Librarian.
Designed by Katie Lattal and Emma Florio.
The Rise of Institutionalization and Moral Treatment
At the turn the 18th century, ideas about mental illness were changing. Previously, people with mental illness had been tolerated at the margins of their communities, but never fully separated from them. Now, they were seen in conflict with the reason and rationality that Enlightenment thinkers believed would improve society. “Madness” became a threat to an ordered and civilized world. People with mental illness were incarcerated in so-called lunatic asylums, where they could be gathered up and excluded from society. By confining people in these specialized institutions, physicians saw an opportunity to systematically observe and categorize their conditions, laying the foundations for the field of psychology.
This engraving, by satirist William Hogarth, is part a series of prints chronicling the downfall of an extravagant young man whose life of excess leads to poverty and eventually madness. It depicts the interior of Bethlehem Hospital, better known as “Bedlam,” and highlights the chaotic environment and neglect of the so-called “inmates” housed there, as well as the public perception of them. Fashionable women visit the asylum, watching the antics of the residents for their amusement. The figure in the foreground, with his shackled ankle, demonstrates the common use of chains to restrain inmates in asylums. By the turn of the 19th century, some reformers advocated for the removal of physical restraints, leading to more humane treatment.
Hogarth, William. “Plate 8 (Tom Rakewell Ends up in the Bethlehem Hospital Madhouse)” from A Rake’s Progress. Etching and engraving. 1735.