By Ellen | August 6, 2012
The Oregonian published a wonderful story about Eric Cordingley and David Anderson’s work locating Morningside Hospital patient graves in Portland. The story, Researchers dig to find what became of Morningside Hospital patients, Alaska’s mentally ill, provides a great description of their research methods and includes a video where they talk about why they’re so committed to locating graves. Congratulations, guys! You’re the best.
By Ellen | September 26, 2011
Over the weekend, the Alaska Historical Society (AHS) recognized the Lost Alaskans project with their Pathfinder Award. We didn’t know we were being considered so this was a wonderful surprise for a chilly Monday morning. The annual AHS meeting was held in Valdez. Here’s information on the award from the society’s website.
The Pathfinder Award is given to an individual or several individuals who have indexed or prepared guides to Alaska historical material that has not been accessible. The 2011 Pathfinder award goes to the Lost Alaskans: Morningside Hospital History Project, and its primary researchers Ellen Ganley, Meg Greene, Karen Perdue, Robin Renfroe, Niejse Steinkruger, Sally Mead, Deborah Smith, Marylou Elton, and Vivian Hamilton. This group has worked to uncover the documentary record of mental health care during the years in which Alaskans were institutionalized out of state at Morningside Hospital. Their work not only helps reveal the past, but has had an impact on the lives of living family members seeking to understand what happened to their relatives.
Wow, what a great start to the week!
By Ellen | December 29, 2010
Happy Holidays!
2010 was an exciting year! Among the milestones this year:
- The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority granted us funding to support research and travel. The grant is being administered by Access Alaska.
- We did well received presentations at the Alaska Historical Society Conference and the First Alaskans Institute Elders and Youth Conference
- Work on the patient database has begun.
- Progress was made in identifying Morningside Hospital patient burial sites (cemeteries), including locating a few patient graves.
- New territorial court records were located, providing insights into the commitment process. The documents included commitment orders, jury records and medical assessments.
- Research continued at the National Archives II. Most of the documents referring to individual patients are now scanned. Current research is focused on hospital inspections and investigations.
The first few months of 2011 promise to be nearly as exciting as 2010. Niejse Steinkruger, Meg Greene, and Robin Renfroe are going to Juneau in January to dive into the Alaska State Archives with our Juneau-based researcher, Deborah Smith. Read More »
By Ellen | October 20, 2010
Two great days at the Elders and Youth Conference. We had a booth (thanks to the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority) and did a presentation yesterday afternoon. Forty (40) elders and youth were in the audience. We focused the presentation on telling the stories of some of the people who were sent to Morningside. A number of adults had heard of Morningside, and some had family members who were sent there. The best part was telling the story to young people, none of whom had heard of Morningside Hospital, but they all understood the tragedy of being sent so far from home.
By Ellen | October 2, 2010
Lisa Morris of the UAF Archives has produced the “Research Guide to Alaska Mental Health History Sources“, an invaluable guide to information resources in Alaska and elsewhere. The guide covers the history of mental health services from 1900 to the present, including the Morningside Hospital years (1904-1960s).
By Ellen | September 16, 2010
The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority recently approved a grant of nearly $60,000 to support our research. Because we are all volunteers and not a part of any organization, Access Alaska graciously agreed to manage the funds. This grant will support the development of the patient database, archival support, and research related travel. Thanks to all who made this possible, and especially Doug Toelle, our Access Alaska project manager and friend.
By Ellen | September 15, 2010
The Oregonian Historical Archive is online! This is wonderful news. We found a limited number of articles on Morningside at the Oregon Historical Society, most of which had to do with the 1950s. The new online archive lists 345 articles on Morningside Hospital, many providing insights into the day-to-day activities there. You can get a one-day pass, which includes up to 50 downloaded articles, for $9.99. Monthly subscriptions are $19.50/month with which you can view up to 200 articles a month. Here’s where you can find the archive.
This is old news, but the Morningside Hospital Blog was rated among the 50 best hospital blogs by healthcare blog, “Nurseblogger.” This happened last September but I wasn’t aware of it until I stumbled on it while doing Morningside research. I think we’re probably the only blog about a hospital that no longer exists among the top 50.
Some of the other “Top 50″ hospital blogs included:
- “Beyond Vermont State Hospital (VSH) Blog” in Vermont
- “Porter Adventist Hospital” in Colorado
- “Save Charity Hospital” in New Orleans, Louisiana
- “Knoxville Hospital and Clinics Blog” in Iowa
- “Lexington Medical Center” in South Carolina
- “OSF St. Joseph Medical Center: This is Health Care” in Bloomington, Illinois
- “Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley” in California
- “Virginia Hospital Center” in Arlington, Virginia
- “Children’s Hospital and Health System” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
By Ellen | August 18, 2009
Karen and I spent Wednesday through Friday of last week at the National Archives II in College Park, MD. After worrying that we wouldn’t find any patients records, we found more than I imagined possible. Too much, in fact. They have nearly all of the Morningside Hospital patient lists from 1904 through the early 1950s, plus contracts, investigation reports, personnel records, medical officer reports, and administrative correspondence between Morningside and the Department of the Interior. We worked each day for 10 to 11 hours, scanning and copying. In the end, we had nearly a gig of scanned documents and photos and a 4 inch stack of copies. I don’t think we made a dent in what’s there.
This presents us with an entirely new set of questions, the most important of which is how to handle this much information and make it readily available to families and other researchers. Over the next month, we’re going to seek advice on the organization of historical collections and database design. In the meantime, we’ll post more patient lists and articles on some of the more interesting information and photos we found in the files.
Stay tuned.
