Missouri Historical Documents Browser: Mental Health

MENTAL HEALTH
IN MISSOURI STATE PUBLICATIONS

1844

• Legislative Committee on the Lunatic Asylum, p. 273 in legislative journal appendix

1850

• Commissioners of the Lunatic Asylum, pp. 134-138 in legislative journal appendix
• Joint Committee Appointed to Visit the Asylum for the Insane, pp. 210-214 in legislative journal appendix
• Standing Committee on the State Lunatic Asylum, pp. 225-228 in legislative journal appendix
  • Report begins at the bottom of the page.

1852

• Report of Board of Managers of the State Lunatic Asylum, pp. 155-205 in legislative journal appendix. This includes the report of the Superintendent of the State Lunatic Asylum, pp. 185-205.

1854

• Report of Board of Managers of the State Lunatic Asylum, pp. 35-80 in legislative journal appendix

1856

• 3rd Biennial Report of the Board of Managers of the Lunatic Asylum, pp. 50-86 in legislative journal appendix

1858

• State Lunatic Asylum report, pp. 321-349 in legislative journal appendix

1859

• Report of the Board of Managers of the State Lunatic Asylum (Fulton) in Hathi Trust, pp. 321-349 

1861

• State Lunatic Asylum report, pp. 535-564 in legislative journal appendix

1862

• Lunatic Asylum report, pp. 261-274 in legislative journal appendix

1863

• State Lunatic Asylum, pp. 30-52 in Part 2 of legislative journal appendix for that year

1864

• State Lunatic Asylum, 6th Biennial Report, pp. 49-72 in legislative journal appendix

1869

• Eighth Missouri State Lunatic Asylum biennial report, in legislative journal appendix

1870

• Ninth Missouri State Lunatic Asylum report, in legislative journal appendix

1873

• Board of Guardians report (covers charitable and penal institutions supported by the state, including …prisons, lunatic asylums, schools for blind and deaf, homes for orphans and for feeble-minded, etc.), in legislative journal appendix

1877

• Missouri State Lunatic Asylum No. 1 - Fulton (2nd Biennial Report), in legislative journal appendix

1879

• State Lunatic Asylum No. 1 - Fulton, and
• State Lunatic Asylum No. 2 - St. Joseph, in legislative journal appendix

1881

• Committee on Deaf & Dumb and Lunatic Asylums,
• State Lunatic Asylum No. 1 - Fulton, and
• State Lunatic Asylum No. 2 - St. Joseph, in legislative journal appendix

1883

• State Lunatic Asylum at Fulton, and
• State Lunatic Asylum No. 2 - St. Joseph, in legislative journal appendix

1885

• State Lunatic Asylum No. 2 (5th Biennial Report), and
• Report of Committee...to Visit the Eleemosynary Institutions (includes State University, School of Mines, normal schools #1-3, School for the Blind, School for the Deaf, Lunatic Asylums #1-2), in legislative journal appendix

1887

• State Lunatic Asylum No. 1 - Fulton,
• State Lunatic Asylum No. 2 - St. Joseph, and
• Committee Appointed by the Governor to Visit and Examine the Asylums, State U. and other Institutions…, in legislative journal appendix

1889

• Lunatic Asylum - Fulton,
• Lunatic Asylum - St. Joseph,
• Lunatic Asylum - Nevada, and
• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1891

• Lunatic Asylum #1- Fulton,
• Lunatic Asylum #2 - St. Joseph,
• Lunatic Asylum #3 - Nevada, and
• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1893

• State Lunatic Asylum #1 - Fulton,
• State Lunatic Asylum #2 - St. Joseph,
• State Lunatic Asylum #3 - Nevada, and
• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1895

• State Lunatic Asylum #1 - Fulton,
• State Lunatic Asylum #2 - St. Joseph,
• State Lunatic Asylum #3 - Nevada, and
• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1897

• Lunatic Asylum #1,
• Lunatic Asylum #2,
• Lunatic Asylum #3, and
• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1898

• Annual report of the superintendent of the St. Louis Insane Asylum.

1899

• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1901

• Lunatic Asylum #1 - Fulton, MO,
• State Hospital for the Insane #2 - St. Joseph, MO,
• Lunatic Asylum #3 - Nevada, MO, and
• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1903

• State Hospital for Insane No. 1 at Fulton (25th biennial report),
• State Hospital for Insane No. 2 at St. Joseph (14th biennial report),
• State Hospital No. 3 at Nevada (8th biennial report),
• State Hospital for Insane No. 4 at Farmington (1st biennial report), and
• Report of Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1905

• State Hospital for the Insane, No. 1,
• State Hospital for the Insane, No. 2,
• State Hospital for the Insane, No. 3,
• State Hospital for the Insane, No. 4, and
• Committee to Visit State Institutions, in legislative journal appendix

1921-1926

• Biennial reports of the Board of Managers of State Eleemosynary Institutions

1926

• State care of the insane in Missouri : with special reference to hospital number one at Fulton

1927-1929

• Biennial reports of the Board of Managers of State Eleemosynary Institutions

1929

• Penal and eleemosynary supporting data to the Report of the State Survey Commission

1930-1944

• Biennial reports of the Board of Managers of State Eleemosynary Institutions

1944

• A Factual report on the question "Should the State take over the St. Louis City Sanitarium?"

1945-1946

• Biennial Report of the Missouri Division of Mental Diseases of the Department of Public Health and Welfare

1947

• The Mentally Ill: Their Care and Treatment in Missouri, Report #8 from the Missouri Committee on Legislative Research

1947-1954

• Annual report of the Missouri Division of Mental Diseases of the Department of Public Health and Welfare

1949

• The Mentally Ill: Their Care and Treatment in Four Selected States, Report #10 from the Missouri Committee on Legislative Research. Compares Missouri services and facilities to those in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. 

1955-1958

• Annual report of the Missouri Division of Mental Diseases of the Department of Public Health and Welfare

1958

• Effects of an expanded treatment program at Fulton State Hospital on patient recovery and related variables

1959-1962

• Annual report of the Missouri Division of Mental Diseases of the Department of Public Health and Welfare

1962

• A Descriptive study of the children's unit at Fulton State Hospital No. I, Fulton, Missouri
• A Descriptive evaluation of the admission procedure at Fulton State Hospital

1963-1972

• Annual report of the Missouri Division of Mental Diseases of the Department of Public Health and Welfare

1974-1975

• Annual Report, Missouri Department of Mental Health

1974-1988

• Annual Report, Missouri Department of Mental Health

1989-1998

• Annual Report, Missouri Department of Mental Health

Current Missouri Division of Mental Health

• Website
• About Missouri Department of Mental Health
• History of the department

• Evolution of a Missouri Asylum: Fulton State Hospital, 1851-2006
• A Descriptive study of the children's unit at Fulton State Hospital No. I, Fulton, 1962
• Effects of an expanded treatment program at Fulton State Hospital on patient recovery and related variables, 1958
• Nevada State Hospital (Lunatic Asylum #3), 1885-1985
• Dietary studies of the Missouri State Hospitals for the Insane, (Print) (Microform), 1918

"In 1847, twenty-six years after her admission to the Union, Missouri made the first provision for the state care of her “mentally deranged” citizens by authorizing an "asylum for the insane" at Fulton...The 18th Century of the "asylum approach" to the treatment of the mentally ill was considered an innovative and enlightened method of restoring mental health to individuals in the then sparsely populated nation" --Taken from Missouri Dept. of Mental Health web page on its history.

Although the St. Louis Insane Asylum was not technically a state institution, Missourians from other parts of the state were sent there because of lack of facilities in their own areas. In 1877 the Missouri General Assembly made an appropriation of $70,000 for support of the asylum. This appropriation was vetoed by Governor Phelps, on the ground that it was not a state institution--it being built and controlled by the City of St. Louis. The matter went before the Supreme Court, which rendered an opinion in favor of the asylum. (Taken in part from the 1901 Report of the Committee...to Visit and Examine the State Institutions of Missouri, page 113.)

Quest for a cure: care and treatment in Missouri's first state mental hospital
(Exhibit by the Missouri State Archives)