By the late 19th century, the state of Ohio had established five regional hospitals for the insane. Classed as charitable organizations, these hospitals could only accept patients from their state-mandated district, which was comprised of the surrounding counties. The state also assessed the number of persons that each county probate court could send to their designated hospital based on the yearly census of that county.
The procedure for making the determination of who should be sent to the hospital for admission was codified in an 1856 law titled “An act to provide for the uniform government and better regulation of the Lunatic Asylums of the State and the care of Idiots and the Insane". The process generated three documents:
Additional correspondence was sometimes included with these document packets, which accompanied the persons judged insane to the hospital.
At the Athens Lunatic Asylum, later known as the Athens Asylum for the Insane and the Athens State Hospital, staff noted the person’s name, age, home county, duration of illness, date of inquest, date of admission, and patient number on the exterior of their packet. The packets were then filed in one of two accordion-fold envelopes (one for men and one for women) which contained the records of all persons admitted during the month.
State and federal laws restrict records relating to the hospitalization of the mentally ill for a period of 50 years following the death of the patient. Because of the high volume of Inquest of Lunacy records held by Ohio University Libraries’ Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, staff are unable to verify death dates of individual patients.
The Libraries have adopted a two-track digitization-on-demand model to scan and add records to the Athens Mental Health Center digital archive. For works created more than 132 years ago, researcher requests for individual packets will result in digitization of the entire envelope of admissions. This figure is arrived at by assigning all former patients a lifespan of 100 years, adding a 50 year embargo after their deaths, then subtracting 18 years as the hospital did not officially accept minors. A small number of records relating to children have been located in the collection, however, and staff assess those records for inclusion on a case-by-case basis. Packets created less than 132 years ago will only be added to the digital archive if a researcher is able to identify a specific patient and supply proof of their death more than 50 years previously.