Clifford Beers Papers, 1877-1984

Summary

Creator:
Beers, Clifford Whittingham, 1876-1943
Abstract:
This collection contains the papers of Clifford W. Beers, who was the founder of the American mental hygiene movement. The collection has six series: Correspondence, Writings, Artwork, Photographs, Printed Materials and Scrapbooks, and Subject Files.
Extent:
64 boxes 27.56 linear feet
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the papers of Clifford W. Beers, who was the founder of the American mental hygiene movement. There are six series in this collection.

Correspondence: This series contained folders with overlapping or duplicates dates, possibly for National Committee for Mental Hygiene correspondence, but the folders were kept in their original order, and other types of materials are included with the correspondence. The items include personal correspondence of Beers, such as cards with messages, and correspondence between Clifford Beers and Clara Jepson prior to their marriage in 1912, and letters from Clifford to Clara during their marriage and his terminal illness. There are many letters regarding personal, family and financial matters. Professional correspondence and reports include typed copies of William James' letter to Beers regarding A Mind that Found Itself, an account of the organization of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and of the pioneer Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene, reports of the National Committee, and printed material from the American Foundation for Mental Hygiene and the National Committee.

Writings: This contains A Mind that Found Itself manuscript, notes and reviews, several notebooks in Beers' handwriting, and publications. The original labels for the manuscripts were kept.

Artwork: These materials include numerous sketches Beers made, including many done while he studied at the Art Students League. There are also paintings, a self-portrait, and photographs of Beers' paintings.

Photographs: This series contains childhood photographs of Clifford Beers and Carl Emile Beers, other photographs of family members, and many professional portraits of Clifford Beers as an adult. There are also photographs of the Clifford Beers Room at the Menninger Foundation Museum, the First International Congress on Mental Hygiene, and a banquet held in honor of Adolf Meyer.

Printed Materials and Scrapbooks: These materials include newspaper clippings mounted in scrapbooks that concern Beers' book, A Mind that Found Itself, as well as mental hygiene, and additional letters, reports and news clippings. Most of the series consists of unmounted news clippings.

Subject Files: These files document Beers’ professional activities, notes, and early life.

Biographical / historical:

Clifford Whittingham Beers, born in 1876 and a Yale University graduate, was first confined to a mental institution for paranoia and depression in 1900 and was hospitalized for three years in Connecticut. He experienced numerous abuses by the staff and decided to expose this treatment by writing about his experiences. In 1908, his autobiographical book A Mind That Found Itself was published, became a bestseller, and was endorsed by William James. That same year he founded the Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene, and the following year he organized the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, a society devoted to the prevention of mental illness and the proper treatment of those afflicted. Beers was the Committee's Secretary and fund raiser for many years and a leader of the mental hygiene movement in general until 1939, when he was committed to a mental institution in Providence, Rhode Island, where he died in 1943.

Acquisition information:
Donated by Emily Martin in the 1970s.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions on this material.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from the Oskar Diethelm Library and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Location of this collection:
DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy and the Arts
Weill Cornell Medical College
525 East 68th Street, Box 140
New York, NY 10065, United States
Link to repository site
Contact:
212-746-3728