1811/02/25 |
Rev John Bartlett |
Advocate |
Massachusetts General Hospital Corporation is chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature. The Corporation is intended to treat both physical and mental illnesses, with a separate facility for each. |
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1816/12/00 |
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Joseph Barrell estate in Charlestown, Mass (later Somerville) is bought. The Barrell mansion, originally designed by Charles Bulfinch in 1792, is adapted by Bulfinch and Mathew Parris as the home to the Superintendent and the administration building. |
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1832/00/00 |
Mary Elizabeth Sawyer Tyler |
Work |
Mary Sawyer joins the McLean Asylum of Somerville staff as an attendant. She worked for many years as the matron at the McLean Asylum and her husband, Columbus Tyler, was steward for about 40 years. |
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1837/00/00 |
Dr Luther V Bell |
Superintendent |
Dr Luther V Bell serves as superintendent to the McLean Asylum from 1837 to 1856 and 1857 to 1858. |
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1844/00/00 |
Dr Luther V Bell |
Vocation |
13 Asylum superintendents from the Eastern Seaboard, including McLean's Luther V Bell establish the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, now known as the American Psychiatric Association. |
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1875/00/00 |
Frederick Law Olmsted Sr |
Work |
From 1872 to 1874, the Asylum commissions Frederick Olmsted and a civil engineer Joseph Curtis to conduct site surveys on a new location for the hospital. In 1875, the Trustees buy 107 acres on Wellington Hill in Belmont from the Waverley Land Company. |
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1880/08/28 |
Charles T Jackson |
Died |
Charles Thomas Jackson dies at the McLean Asylum in Massachusetts. |
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1895/10/01 |
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The new McLean Hospital opens at its current location. The Trustees and Superintendent Edward Cowles (1879-1904) developed the campus with a number of cottages where individual patients received care, surrounding a large administration building. |
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1898/00/00 |
Frederick Law Olmsted Sr |
Health |
Due to increasing senility, Frederick Law Olmsted is admitted to McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. |
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1903/08/28 |
Frederick Law Olmsted Sr |
Died |
Frederick Law Olmsted passes away at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. |
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1944/00/00 |
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As late as 1944, McLean is a self-sustaining community, operating a farm, an upholstery shop and a blacksmith shop. Beyond fish and some meat and dairy products bought during two weekly tips to Quincy Market, all food was produced on the McLean grounds. |
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1953/09/14 |
Silvia Plath |
Health |
Sylvia Plath enters McLean Hospital for six months of treatment, which she will write about in "The Bell Jar". She stays at the Women's (South) Belknap House. |
The Bell Jar |
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1959/04/00 |
John Forbes Nash |
Patient |
John Nash is admitted to the McLean Hospital where he will be diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Nash stays in Bowditch Hall from April to May 1959. |
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1963/00/00 |
Ray Charles |
Criminal |
After his arrest for possession of pot and heroin, Ray Charles is sentenced to McLean for observation. Ray wrote, "The nicest part was meeting one of the nurses who I got next to a little later on". While there, Ray entertained his fellow patients. |
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1964/00/00 |
Louis Agassiz Shaw II |
Health |
After confessing to strangling his maid in 1964, Louis Agassiz Shaw II is committed to McLean Hospital, where he will live for 23 years. |
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1967/00/00 |
James Taylor |
Health |
Sleeping 20 hours a day, James Taylor succumbs to depression and is sent to McLean Hospital. Although grateful, after 10 months, he checks himself out against medical advice. He later wrote a song about it: Knocking Round the Zoo. |
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1967/04/00 |
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Susanna Kaysen's parents send her to McLean Hospital for treatment for depression. Diagnosed her with borderline personality disorder, she will leave after 18 months. In 1993 she wrote a memoir about experience "Girl, Interrupted" which was made into a mo |
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1970/00/00 |
Robert Lowell |
Health |
Suffering from manic depression, Robert Lowell stays at McLean Hospital four times in eight years. In his poem "Waking in the Blue" in 1976, Lowell describes the Mayflower screwballs at McLean. |
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1985/00/00 |
Aerosmith |
Health |
After his Aerosmith bandmates confront him about his drug use, Steven Tyler checks himself into the rehabilitation wing of McLean Hospital. |
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1985/00/00 |
Marianne Faithfull |
Health |
Addicted to drugs and alcohol, Marianne Faithfull attempts to dry out in Minnesota and then checks into McLean in 1985. |
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1990/00/00 |
David Foster Wallace |
Health |
The Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House in "Infinite Jest" is based on Granada House in Brighton, Conn. David Foster Wallace spent time there after a four-week stay at McLean Hospital for help with alcoholism, drug addiction and depression. |
Infinite Jest (book) |
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