Psychiatric hospitals

Puck massages the scalp of a deranged-looking Richard Olney who is sitting on a bench in a padded cell in the “Hopeless ward for incurables” and holding a rattle of William Jennings Bryan as a jester. On the floor are loose papers, one labeled “Olney’s letter indorsing [sic] Bryan.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Richard Olney had served as Attorney General in the second administration  of Grover Cleveland, and embodied the President’s conservative stands on Sound Money, “dangerous” unions and strikes, and regulation of monopolies if done in order to protect them. He also served Cleveland as Secretary of State, and some of his views on hemispheric affairs foreshadowed the Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine promulgated a decade later by President Theodore Roosevelt. Given this background — and as a prominent corporate and railroad lawyer, Puck was surprised that Olney supported William Jennings Bryan in the latter’s second run for the presidency.

Dr. Alexander Lambert has recommended William A. White for the appointment at the Government Hospital for the Insane, and President Roosevelt requests that Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock make the appointment.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-20

Governor Roosevelt chides William James for addressing him as “Governor.” Roosevelt knows nothing about the pathological institute or any attacks on Doctor Ira Van Gieson and inquires to whom he should write for such information.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1899-02-15

Henry E. Huck reports to Theodore Roosevelt that he finally got away from the sanitarium at Guelph, Ontario, and is currently safe in Detroit, Michigan. However, Arthur Heurtley will not help him, even after Huck shared how letters were stolen and that the sanitarium’s attendants were anarchists who harmed Marshall Field’s heirs. He sends a paper slip and does not think the American consul reported on it. Huck asks Roosevelt for help with the Field estate and to be admitted to a sanitarium, not an asylum. He would have reported the mail theft to Governor General of Canada Albert Henry George Grey but did not have the money or protection to get to Ottawa, Ontario. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-27

Henry E. Huck recounts the circumstances he suffered while in a sanitarium in Guelph, Ontario, to Arthur B. Heurtley. Huck additionally provides a number of names of people who he believes can vindicate his claims.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-24

Henry E. Huck sends Theodore Roosevelt a statement from a witness of the American Flag affair to accompany the flag he sent to President William H. Taft. Huck mentions he is currently being held at the Rosehurst sanitarium, but is at risk of being sent to an insane asylum due to his knowledge of the affair. Huck is scared that his doctors and the other people around him are not taking him seriously about this matter, but trusts Roosevelt to help him prove the truth.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-09

Mrs. A. L. Brandenburg sends Theodore Roosevelt a clipping and insists Judge Ludwig be recalled for allowing her to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. She shares her experience while there and that of another wrongfully committed woman.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-03

Henry E. Huck attests to the wrongs he believe were done him in 1910. Huck believes he was treated poorly in the absence of Alfred T. Hobbs, one of his usual doctors, and when he attempted to get in contact with John W. Langmuir to argue his case, he was rudely detained in the sanitarium. Huck claims to have been lied to and denied the usual privileges he was promised.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-07-24