Channing Sanitarium Records, 1879-1900

Summary

Creator:
Channing Sanitarium and Channing, Walter, 1849-1921
Abstract:
This collection contains 11 volumes of clinical case notes from Walter Channing and the Channing Sanitarium in Brookline, Massachusetts from 1879 to 1900. The collection has one series: clinical case notes volumes.
Extent:
3 boxes 1.25 linear feet 11 volumes
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains 11 volumes of clinical case notes from Walter Channing and the Channing Sanitarium in Brookline, Massachusetts from 1879 to 1900. There is one series in this collection, clinical case notes volumes, which include notes, correspondence, news clippings, and drawings.

Biographical / historical:

The Channing Sanitarium, originally called the “Private Hospital for Mental Diseases,” was founded in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1879 by Walter Channing, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist who was the son of poet William Ellery Channing. He provided analyses of Charles J. Guiteau and Leon Frank Czolgosz, who assassinated the U.S. Presidents James A. Garfield and William McKinley, respectively, and later served as chairman of the Boston State Hospital board of trustees from 1908 to 1914.

The sanitarium was one of earliest private hospitals for mental diseases and (compared to other asylums during this time period) tried to focus on the cause of mental illnesses in addition to the symptoms and provided more individualized treatment to patients, including occupational therapy and physical therapies, such as hydrotherapy, massage therapy, and electrotherapy, along with a primitive form of modern psychotherapy. The sanitorium moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1916 and closed in 1951.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from John Gach Books in Maryland, 1998.
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