Building plans and drawings for the New York State Idiot Asylum, [ca. 1850-1897].

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Building plans and drawings for the New York State Idiot Asylum, [ca. 1850-1897].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122535980

The series consists of 19th century watercolor renderings and pencil and ink drawings of the original New York State Idiot Asylum (renamed in 1891 as the Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children), which developed over 150 years into the Syracuse Developmental Center. The asylum was the first public facility in the nation for the care and treatment of persons with mental retardation. The original structures (and the facility's subsequent expansion and development as "colonies") were widely studied and emulated; these historic building plans document the earliest public institutional architecture of its kind.

1 cu. ft. (11 sheets)

New York State Archives

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6752729

Related Entities

There are 5 Entities related to this resource.

New York (State). Dept. of Mental Hygiene.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bd4qgj (corporateBody)

For the first fifty years of the State's history, local governments and private agencies were responsible for the care of New York State's mentally ill. In 1836 (Chapter 82), the legislature authorized the construction of the State's first mental health institution, the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica, which opened in 1843. By 1890, the State had opened nine additional asylums for the mentally ill. Local governments were responsible for expenses of inmates at these asylums and continu...

New York (State). Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61v9c9r (corporateBody)

Prior to 1978, the Dept. of Mental Hygiene was responsible for various services to the mentally disabled and mentally ill and for treatment oversight. It received patient admission lists from various public and private treatment facilities throughout New York State. Despite the 1978 split of the department into the Office of Mental Health (OMH) and the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD), facilities under the jurisdiction of OMRDD continue...

New York State Asylum for Idiots

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61z8mt1 (corporateBody)

Syracuse Developmental Center

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dz46kt (corporateBody)

The Syracuse State School was renamed the Syracuse Developmental Center (SDC) in 1973. It provided institutional services for persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities requiring the most intensive level of care. The Syracuse Developmental Disabilities Services Office (SDDSO) was one of a statewide network of Developmental Disabilities Services Offices (DDSOs) that provided programs and services for the care, treatment, rehabilitation, education, and training of the mentally ...

Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children (N.Y.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rv5fsv (corporateBody)

An 1851 law provided for the state to undertake the care and teaching of "idiots" (the then accepted term for people with retardation). That year, Dr. Hervey B. Wilbur opened an experimental school, with 20 pupils, at a private residence in Albany, New York. Two years later the legislature appropriated funds to buy land and erect a new institution. A group of Syracuse's most prominent citizens wanted the school located in their city, and offered the trustees 18 acres of free land. The offer was ...