A Peculiar Fitness: Occupation, Health, and Ability at a 20th-century Psychiatric Hospital

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Disability Wisdom for the Covid-19 Pandemic" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Archaeological studies into disability in the past often on the physical fabric of the body—sometimes, to the exclusion of the social and emotional dimensions of living with it. This paper examines the tensions between ability, health, and work among attendants ( nurses) at the Western Washington Hospital for the Insane at the turn of the twentieth century. Employment at the Hospital was predicated upon an ideal of able-bodied and mindedness. Attendants did the physical and mental ‘work’ of managing the institution, from administering medications to maintaining cleanliness and order on overcrowded and understaffed wards. Yet, long hours, physical and mental strain, and exposure to infectious disease placed the attendant population at elevated risk of incurring or exacerbating chronic injuries, illnesses, and disabilities. This paper explores how institutional employees experienced chronic illness and disability and how these individuals navigated an institutional culture that was hostile to their bodies, minds, and needs.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2021   •
• Disability Wisdom for the Covid-19 Pandemic

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology