Superintendent's residence before 1890

Edward H. Hart made this photograph of the Superintendent's Residence. This image of a substantial dwelling raises many questions about the social context of institutions, in this case probably an asylum. Who lived here and what was their relationship to the inmates? The architecture is substantial and comfortable, set in extensive grounds, a far cry from the stark conditions experienced by those under the superintendent’s care. In nineteenth-century Europe and America, madhouses began to be reconceived as places of treatment rather than mere confinement, but the hierarchical division between the carers and the cared-for remained sharply in place. Photography played an important role in the growth of these institutions, both as a means of cataloging inmates and as a form of visual propaganda. Looking at pictures like this, social historians can examine the annual reports of institutions. These reports provide a complex picture of social attitudes to mental health and its treatment. We come to understand how such institutions mirrored the wider social inequalities of their time.