Visit to a Lunatic Asylum

TUC.1/ EBO.1.1

…shrieks and groans went through the air…

Object: Essay Book
Description: Essay book of Laura S. Tucker, student at the Utica Female Seminary, 1863 (36 pp). Of particular interest is her essay, “Visit to a Lunatic Asylum” (probably the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica).
Date: 1863
Height: 8 ¼”
Length: 7”
Depth: ¼”
Weight: ½ lbs
On Monday, August 25, 2014 the Landmarks Society of Greater Utica is hosting a program at Old Main (for more information, click here ). What is Old Main? A stunning example of Greek Revival architecture, the former New York State Lunatic Asylum is now largely vacant. For a history of the building, click here or here.

Old Main

As a student at the Utica Female Academy, also known as The Seminary, Laura S. Tucker wrote the following essay in 1863, 2 years before the building burned down and was eventually replaced with what became Mrs. Piatt’s Female Seminary (remember Mrs. Piatt’s?).

Visit to a Lunatic Asylum

On entering the asylum we passed many comfortable rooms, in which were those who were recovering from temporary fits of insanity.

In the fourth story, we reached the cells where were confined like wild beasts, raving, yelling maniacs. Shrieks and groans went through the air. Demonic laughter and wild words that made the blood curdle in the veins, prayers, groans, and protestations, all mingled to form a sound discordant and horrible. From one end of the hall the rays of the morning sun streamed in, half lighting the abode of misery and seemed a consolation that could not be shut out, even though it came through a barred window.

…In a fit of fear that she would discover that he might sometime be crazy…

On each side of the hall were cells, which the worst cases were kept, and from their occupants the noises proceeded. In one was a man of about twenty-five whose beauty would have marked him anywhere, but he was chained to the wall, struggling, groaning, and talking. I turned away, sick at heart at the sight of a case so sad. The keeper whispered to my father that the maniac, now one of their worst cases, had once been a very handsome and talented man, fond of society, and a great ornament to it, but inheriting insanity. Still knowing this, he had married a young and very beautiful girl and in a fit of fear that she would discover that he might sometime be crazy, he had murdered her.

Since then he had been there without hope of recovery. I went away thanking God that he had not made me a terror to my kindred and friends, by inflicting upon me that most awful curse, madness.

Miss Tucker’s essays give a glimpse into the world of a young girl in the mid-19th century, and her remarks about the Lunatic Asylum suggest what sorts of spirits one might find still haunting the halls and walls of Old Main.

~Jeana
jganskop@oneidacountyhistory.org

that most awful curse, madness