Proposal
Blackwell’s Island, now known as Roosevelt Island, is a small island in New York’s East River. It is about 2 miles long and is situated between Manhattan Island and Long Island. Blackwell’s Island, after being purchased by the city of New York in 1828, housed some of the city’s most notorious and destitute citizens. The island was home to several facilities, including an insane asylum. Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum was made famous partly due to one brave reporter, Nellie Bly, who faked a mental illness in order to be admitted to the asylum for ten days. After these ten days Bly came out with publications in the newspaper the World telling of her experiences inside the asylum. This tell all by Bly alerted the public to the atrocities that patients were facing. Her publications received so much attention that she compiled them into a book, at the beginning of which she states that her accounts had a positive effect on those being treated in the asylum.
This project proposes an investigation into how Bly changed the running of Blackwell’s Island Asylum as well as the running of American asylums in general. This will be accomplished by examining several sources on Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum, as well as some examinations into Nellie Bly. A major primary source that will be utilized in this project is Bly’s book, Ten Days in a Madhouse. Furthermore, the project will investigate sources such as William Logie Russell’s work, The New York Hospital: A History of Psychiatric Service, 1771-1936, which gives a detailed account of the history of the psychiatric services offered at the New York Hospital. This source, as well as others will assist in contextualizing how asylums changed throughout the years. The purpose and goal of the project is to find major changes and improvements in the running of asylums soon after the time Nellie Bly published her works.
Annotated Bibliography
“Before Rikers, Blackwell’s Was DOC’s Island Home.” Blackwell’s Island Part 1. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/blakwel1.html.
This source discusses the history of Blackwell’s Island and the institutions on it. It talks about when they were first founded and how all of these buildings were actually created through labor of those convicted in the prison on the island. This source will aid the project by giving insight and information into the history of Blackwell’s Island as well as the history of the other facilities on the island.
Bernstein, Anne E., and Shryn A. Lenhart. The Psychodynamic Treatment of Women.
Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, 2005.
This work by Anne E. Bernstein (M.D.) and Shryn A. Lenhart (M.D.) is about the
psychodynamic treatment of women. This means there will be discussions on major psychiatric issues for women and the unconscious processes they pick up. This type of treatment begins withSigmund Freud and has continued to be built upon, mostly by women in the psychiatric field. This work will aid the project by showing more modern treatment types for women with mental health problems. This work will help in comparing how mental health treatment of women has changed since Nellie Bly wrote about her experiences in the nineteenth century.
“Blackwell’s Island Asylum.” Asylum Project. Last modified August 29, 2020.
http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php/Blackwell%27s_Island_Asylum.
This website gives an overview of the history of Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. It discusses the asylum’s and the island’s background and goes into the history of the asylum. Furthermore, the website also talks about Nellie Bly and the part she took in this asylum’s history. This website will assist the project by giving information on the history of Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum.
“Blackwell’s Island (Roosevelt Island), New York City.” National Parks Page. Last modified
April 5, 2021. https://www.nps.gov/places/blackwell-s-island-new-york-city.htm.
The National Parks Service put together information on Blackwell’s Island, also known as Roosevelt Island. This website gives an overview of the history of the island as well as a history of the facilities the island used to house. This source will be helpful to the project because it gives insight into the history of Blackwell’s Island.
Bly, Nellie. Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly’s Experience on Blackwell’s Island.
Feigning Insanity in Order to Reveal Asylum Horrors. The Trying Ordeal of the New York World’s Girl Correspondent. Project Gutenberg, n.d.
This book compiles all of Nellie Bly’s accounts of her time inside of Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. These entries were originally published one by one in the newspaper, the World in 1887. These accounts highlight the cruel treatment the women admitted into the insane asylum faced. Bly’s purpose was to expose what really happened inside this asylum to the public. This book of Bly’s experiences will assist the project by providing a firsthand account of what Bly experienced and how Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum operated.
Boardman, Samantha, and George J. Makari. “The Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island and the New York Press.” American Journal of Psychiatry (April 2007), accessed September 10, 2023. https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ajp.2007.164.4.581.
This article by the American Journal of Psychiatry discusses the history of Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. It discusses how it was originally designed to be a “state-of-the-art institution based on the theories of moral treatment” but how that original design was never completed due to financial setbacks. The article goes on to mention how patients were mistreated and continues to discuss Nellie Bly’s impact after she went undercover in the asylum. This article will assist the project because it discusses the impact Nellie Bly as well as other forms of media had on the asylum.
Dolan, Michael. “Roosevelt Island” American History. Vol. 54. World History Group, LLC,
2019.
This small infographic by Michael Dolan gives a brief overview of information on Roosevelt Island. Dolan recounts some of the information that Stacy Horn gives in her book Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th-Century New York. Dolan recounts how Nellie Bly and other reporters put the institutes on Blackwell’s Island through the mud and ruined their reputations. This source will assist the project by giving further insight into the effects reporters, such as Bly, had on Blackwell’s Island.
Dwyer, Ellen. Homes for the Mad : Life Inside Two Nineteenth-Century Asylums. New
Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
In this monograph, author Ellen Dwyer aims to examine two different nineteenth century asylums. However, Dwyer argues that most studies into asylums dissolves into arguments and debates on the “social control functions” of asylums at the time. Dwyer wishes to have her examination take a closer look at the internal and external histories of asylums during the nineteenth century. She aims to have a more positive, and less negatively influenced study into these asylums. This source will aid the project by providing information on how asylums in the nineteenth century worked from sources that are not just from one person’s experience in hopes of getting a wider understanding of the asylums.
Earle, Harriet E. H. “‘A Convenient Place for Inconvenient People’: Madness, Sex and the
Asylum in American Horror Story.” Journal of Popular Culture 50, no. 2 (2017): 259–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12508.
This article by Harriet E. H. Earle discusses the historical accuracy of the TV show American Horror Story: Asylum. In this article, Earle goes over the history of the asylum, as well as talks about the image of asylums and how they are remembered. She further scrutinizes womens’ roles and how they are treated, or viewed in popular media adaptations of asylums. This source will assist the project because it studies how asylums are remembered today and gives some insight into the history of asylums as well.
Grob, Gerald N. Mental Illness and American Society, 1875-1940. NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983.
In this work, Gerald Grob aims to analyze the experiences that the American society went through when they were trying to effectively deal with mental illness through both a social and medical lens. Doing this Grob describes the complex relationships that existed between patients, psychiatrists, institutions, and government between the years of 1875-1940. This study will aid the project by giving insight into how mental institutions and the relationship with the public changed in the time period.
Kroeger, Brooke. Nellie Bly : Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist. 1st ed. New York: Times Books, 1994.
In this monograph, Brooke Kroeger writes a biography of Nellie Bly’s life. Kroeger mentions how there remains very little sources on Nellie Bly, which is odd considering the major impact she had on the field of journalism and the waves she made for feminists. Kroeger goes on to argue that the reason she wrote this biography was to showcase the wonder that is Nellie Bly. In this book, Kroeger includes a whole section on Bly’s time with the New York World, the paper she wrote for when she faked a mental illness to get into Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. This source will thus assist the project by giving information on Bly’s life, both before, during, and after her time in the asylum. It will assist in pointing out the profound effects Bly had.
Lutes, Jean Marie. “Into the Madhouse with Nellie Bly: Girl Stunt Reporting in Late
Nineteenth-Century America.” American Quarterly 54, no. 2 (2002): 217–53.
In this essay, Jean Marie Lutes analyzes Nellie Bly’s accounts in Ten Days in a Mad-House. Lutes aims to examine Bly’s impact on the history of journalism, women writing, as well as womens’ access to the public sphere. Though this source has a focus on Bly’s impact on journalism and womens’ rights, it will also assist the project by examining her impact on the asylum.
McGrath, Patrick. “Bedlam on the East River: Roosevelt Island Was Once Home to
Squalid Prisons and Asylums.” New York Times (1923-). New York, N.Y: New York Times Company, 2018.
This New York Times article is a review of Stacy Horn’s book Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th-Century New York. In this review McGrath discusses Thomas Kirkbride’s impact on mental institutions and highlights Horn’s argument that “crowding . . . disparate populations together” did immense evil. This source will be beneficial to the project because it gives an easily accessible overview of Horn’s arguments.
Noble, Iris. Nellie Bly: First Woman Reporter (1867-1922). New York: Julian Messner Inc., 1956.
This monograph is a biography on the life of Nellie Bly. Author Iris Noble argues that Bly was the most famous women reporter of her day, and that she was the first women reporter. The source gives an overview of Bly’s life from when she decided she wanted to be a reporter in her teens, to her death. The source will assist the project by giving background information on Bly’s life as well as her major accomplishments.
Paranick, Amber. “‘’Behind Asylum Bars:’ Nellie Bly Reporting from Blackwell’s Island.”
Library of Congress (blog). November 8, 2022. Accessed September 10, 2023. https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/11/nellie-bly-blackwells-island/.
This blog post by Amber Paranick on the Library of Congress website discusses Nellie Bly’s book Ten Days in a Mad-House. In this post Paranick argues that Bly was the “original muckraker” and that she gave a voice and platform to women reporters starting with her work in the Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum. This source will aid the project by giving insight on Bly’s time in the asylum and the profound effects she had.
Richmond, Julius B. “THE HULL HOUSE ERA: Vintage Years for Children.” American
Journal of Orthopsychiatry 65, no. 1 (1995): 10–20. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0085065.
In this article, Julius B. Richmond goes over the history of the Hull House and their commitment to the care of children. Richmond further examines how the increase of social and developmental problems for children and families affected the increased concern for those less fortunate and grew the interest in social work and developmental sciences. This source will aid the project by providing insight into how people in the late nineteenth century approached philosophy work and compare these findings to society’s response to Nellie Bly’s accounts of the asylum on Blackwell’s Island.
Roche, Rick. “Damnation Island: Poor, Sick, Mad & Criminal in 19th-Century New York.”
Booklist. Chicago: American Library Association, 2018.
This short review by Rick Roche gives an overview of what Blackwell’s Island is and the idea the city of New York had when they first purchased the island. Roche goes on to continue stating that though the plans for the island seemed good, the “penny pinching commissioners and corrupt bureaucrats” ran these plans to the ground and caused suffering, crowding, and mistreatment of patients. This source will assist the project by giving information on the history of the institutions on Blackwell’s island and how they went downhill.
Russell, William Logie. The New York Hospital: A History of Psychiatric Service, 1771-1936. New York: Columbia University Press, 1945.
This work includes the history of the New York Hospital. It includes accounts of the first New York hospital and its psychiatry department and retells the development of the hospital and psychiatric treatment from 1771-1939. This work will be helpful to the project because it will inform on how the treatment and approach to psychiatric care changed over the time period, a time period which includes Nellie Bly’s articles and the after effects of it.
Spinelli, Michelle Alison. “‘Sound the Alarm’: Patient Experience, Print Culture, and the
American Asylum in the Nineteenth Century.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2020.
Michelle Alison Spinelli, in this dissertation, examines how patient experiences in nineteenth century American asylums were portrayed in popular media at the time. She pairs this examination with context of the time and how the culture at the time allowed for asylum reforms. This dissertation will be helpful to the project because it discusses such topics such as asylum reform as well as how asylums were portrayed in media such as Bly’s accounts.
Warren, Carol A. B. Madwives : Schizophrenic Women in the 1950s. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1987.
This monograph by Carol Warren is about the life of women in the 1950’s and dealing with marriage and mental hospitalization at the time. Warren claims the work to be a “study of gender” since she interviewed and studied seven women, their husbands, children, and social circles. The women were put into the same mental institution for the same diagnosis. This work will be beneficial to the project because it will show and discuss how the treatment of women has changed from when Nellie Bly experienced and wrote about the treatments in the late nineteenth century in Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum.
