“What Can’t Be Cured, Must Be Endured”

More than a Narrative

One of the defining tenets of moral treatment as it was conceived was the use of occupational and social activities as a coping mechanism and distraction technique. In institutions that practiced moral therapy, this usually meant working in the garden or the sewing room, the wood shop or the print shop. The less publicly-visible products of this were often blankets and clothes and the very food on the table, but the inmate-generated magazine The Opal is also an example of the outcome of this work. Regardless of whether or not they were recognized as a formal part of therapy, all of the creative pieces shown here stand out especially, as they are loud with the voices of their creators. Sometimes produced while institutionalized, and sometimes before and/or after treatment, the words and images in this section can be seen as a form of narrative but, in many ways, they go beyond that. These pieces ask us to stop and linger over a mark, a word, a curve, or a color, and to reflect on the individual that created it.

Richard Nisbett, Tranquility – An Ode (Philadelphia, undated). Bequest of James Rush.

Richard Nisbett, Origin of Quick-Silver and Quick-Sand, (Philadelphia, undated). Bequest of James Rush.

Richard Nisbett, Mappa Mundi (Philadelphia, ca. 1819). Watercolor.

Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Richard Nisbett, An Antarctic Scenery (Philadelphia, ca. 1816). Watercolor. Bequest of James Rush.

Likely born in Greenwich and educated at Oxford, Richard Nisbett (1753-1823) was a merchant, published author, poet, artist, and patient in the insane ward at Pennsylvania Hospital. His struggles with mental illness began in Philadelphia, where he was committed to Pennsylvania Hospital in 1800 and received treatment under Dr. Benjamin Rush. Nisbett remained there until his death in 1823.

The two manuscript poems, Origins of Quick-Silver and Quick-Sand and Tranquility, and the two watercolors, An Antarctic Scenery and Mappa Mundi, were all created while Nisbett was a patient at the hospital. Taken together, these pieces begin to reveal the staggeringly beautiful yet completely incomprehensible work of an obscure and all but forgotten mind.

McDonald Clarke, Poems of M'Donald Clarke (New York, 1836).

Friend and influence to Walt Whitman and Fitz-Greene Halleck, McDonald Clarke (1798-1842) was a familiar, if eccentric, fixture in the early 19th century New York scene. Known by many as the “Mad Poet of Broadway,” Clarke was a restless romantic and prolific poet. He published eight volumes of poetry between 1820 and his untimely death in 1842. He died in a jail cell on March 5th, having drowned in a faucet after a police officer found him “destitute and apparently demented” on the street.

John B. Derby, Musings of a Recluse (Boston, 1837). Gift of Todd and Sharon Pattison.

After leaving Cutter’s Retreat, John Derby, poet, politician, and lawyer, went to New Hampshire where he lived as a hermit and wrote poetry. In the introduction to this volume, Derby explains the events which led to its publication. Writing rhymes, he says, allowed him to “preserve a memorial of his thoughts and feelings,” and was his only solace.

Click here to listen to the poem The Victim of the Mad-House by John Derby, read by Steven Peitzman

Miss Manning, Thoughts Suggested on a Thanksgiving Day Passed at the State Lunatic Asylum, Worcester, Mass. (Worcester, 1844?).

Though this poem is undated, its mention of Dr. Samuel Woodward, Superintendent, and Martha Johonnot, asylum benefactor, help to narrow the publication date to between 1841 and 1846. The hospital at Worcester opened in 1832, making it the first state asylum in Massachusetts. In her Thanksgiving poem, Miss Manning not only brings to life the events of the day—including the turkey dinner and Thanksgiving Ball—but also expresses gratitude for the kind and tender treatment she, and her fellow patients, received all year round.

The Opal. Edited by the Patients of the State Lunatic Asylum, Utica N.Y. (Utica, 1853).

The patients at the State Asylum in Utica wrote, edited, and printed this remarkable publication. The Utica asylum was home to a print shop, which employed many residents as part of Utica’s program of moral treatment. The American Journal of Insanity was also a product of the Utica print shop until the 1920s. The Opal was issued in ten volumes between 1851 and 1860 and featured poetry, prose, and longer form articles written by patients. All proceeds from subscription sales went towards the acquisition of books for the asylum library.

Abigail A. Peacock, Caught (Haddonfield, 1883). Ink and pencil drawing. Gift of David Doret and Linda Mitchell.

Abigail A. Peacock, At the Close of the Day. 200 Berlin Rd, Haddonfield, N.J., Feb. 17, 1882 (Haddonfield, 1882). Pencil drawing. Gift of David Doret and Linda Mitchell.

Abigail A. Peacock, Too Late. Kings Highway, Haddonfield, N.J. Dec. 1, 1882 (Haddonfield, 1882). Pencil drawing. Gift of David Doret and Linda Mitchell.

Abbie Peacock (1864-1927), was an art student at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women from 1880-1884, the same time that she created these three drawings inspired by her hometown of Haddonfield, New Jersey. Sometime between 1895 and 1900, Abbie became a patient at the Friends Asylum in Philadelphia, and by 1905 she was a patient at the Camden County Hospital for the Insane in Gloucester. Census records indicate that she remained there until her death in 1927.

Two of the drawings are misattributed to her younger sister, Debbie, on the front, but signed “Abbie Peacock” on the back.

Lizzie D. Cottier, The Right Spirit (Buffalo, 1882). Gift of Charles E. Rosenberg.

The first five chapters of this novel were written in secret while Lizzie Cottier was a patient at the State Asylum in Buffalo. She explains in her preface that inmates were not allowed writing materials, and that she had to hide pencils in cracks and crevices in order to write this story. Cottier was a survivor of domestic abuse, and was committed to the asylum by her husband as retaliation after she sent their daughter away to a friend in an effort to protect her. Faced with little hope of release, Cottier wrote The Right Spirit to prove her sanity.

Sophia E. Perry, [Sophia Perry Diaries] (Maine, 1858-1901).

Courtesy of the Historical Medical Library at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia

Sophia Perry (1841?-1908) kept a diary for much of her life, including during the years she was a patient at the Maine Insane Hospital in Augusta. Though the details of her commitment are not clear, she was admitted to the hospital in 1879 and spent the remainder of her life there. The pages of this volume, written in 1888, are largely filled with original poetry but also offer a fleeting glimpse into her life, the doctors, and other patients at the asylum.

John Armstrong Chaloner, Robbery Under Law (Roanoke Rapids, 1915).

According to the State of New York, John Armstrong Chaloner (1862-1935) was insane; according to North Carolina and Virginia, he was not. Chaloner (who was related to the Astor, Stuyvesant, and Livingston families) was a patient at Bloomingdale Asylum in 1897, having been sent there involuntarily by his family after he began experimenting with what he called the “X-Faculty,” a form of parapsychology. After escaping to North Carolina and being declared sane, he continued his philanthropic efforts and lectured on the X-Faculty.

A Virginia newspaper made the frontispiece image in response to Chaloner having casually remarked that he thought he bore a resemblance to Napoleon.

Richard David Comstock, Rhymes of a Raver (Greystone Park, 1930).

Richard Comstock was not a writer, and this is not a book of poetry. It is, according to Comstock himself, a book of rhymes chronicling his time at the New Jersey State Hospital at Greystone Park; he was merely the interpreter. Comstock was a patient at Greystone Park recovering from years of alcohol abuse and worked in the hospital print shop, where he published this volume. He credited the institution and its staff for helping him regain his confidence and rebuild his life.

Angelica Gilbert Whiting, [Name-Inscribed Quilt Made for Mary Sophia Roberts Young] (Brattleboro, 1846). Pieced quilt.

Courtesy of William and Charlene Bongiorno Stephens

In September 1846, Angelica Whiting (1811-1871) and Mary Young (1819-1854), strangers to each other, were admitted to the Vermont Asylum for the Insane (now the Brattleboro Retreat). By December 1846, when Mary was released, Angelica had created this friendship quilt for her new friend. Angelica’s sister Mary Brainerd (1806-1889) lost a child earlier in 1846. The congregation of the Third Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where her husband was minister, created and gifted a friendship quilt to support her during her grief (currently in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Presumably, Angelica was inspired by the gift received by her sister to create this one for Mary Young, who was also grieving the loss of a child. Angelica signed the quilt in indelible ink on several squares and included sentimental verses. Other signatures present on the quilt represent two more patients at the asylum as well as several asylum employees, and the children of superintendent Dr. William H. Rockwell (1800-1873). Rockwell employed moral treatment methods at his asylum, and these included engaging patients in useful labor, such as needlework. He also encouraged patients to build relationships with others at the asylum, and ample evidence of that is present here. Signatures from members of Mary Young’s family were added after the quilt was gifted.

To learn more about this quilt, see Charlene Bongiorno Stephens and William G. Stephens, “Nothing Thou Love Be Lost or Die,” Uncoverings: The Research Papers of the American Quilt Study Group (volume 41, 2020).

Maureen Cummins, Crazy Quilt (Rosendale, 1998). Screen print and letterpress fold book.

Each square of this “quilt” features the words of a woman who received treatment for mental illness. The original works from which many of the quotes were taken, are featured in this exhibition. These include passages from Sane or Insane? by Margaret Starr, as well as passages from Elizabeth Packard and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, among others.

This book was created years before, and entirely independent of, the re-discovery of the name-inscribed quilt also included in this exhibition.

Maureen Cummins' Website