Quakers & Mental Health: Friends Asylum Through the Years

Curated by Maia Roark ‘25 & Morgan Soutos ‘24

October 16 through December 22, 2023

This exhibit examines the history of the first 100 years of Friends Hospital, also known as the Friends Asylum for Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason, opened in 1817. The brainchild of Philadelphia Quaker Thomas Scattergood, the Asylum was both the first private mental hospital in the United States and the first psychiatric institution in the United States to employ moral treatment: treating patients with kindness and patience, only restraining them as a last resort, and instilling meaningful habits that promoted growth. This exhibit examines different aspects of the Asylum’s first hundred years, from patient admissions to entertainment to its built environment.