Before you get started, please check this post for updated information, quick tips, and information on how to obtain historical records. Are you interested in using any of our information? We are happy to accommodate requests. Common requests often include: use for blogs and/or websites, media use, as well as school and non-profit use. Secondary…
Insanity: Causes, Types, and Treatments
This is a three-part series regarding the historical causes, types, and treatments of insanity in the 19th and 20th centuries. Though focus is primarily on Kentucky institutions, these apply to other institutions throughout the United States. You can visit this page to read Kentucky’s historical lunacy laws. You can also check our glossary of anachronistic…
Kentucky’s Historical Lunacy Laws
Lunacy Laws The following is a compilation of lunacy laws that were established in the Commonwealth of Kentucky up to the year 1883. Please remember to keep these laws in a historical context when reading them. The book, in its entirety, is in the public domain and can be viewed freely online. To view the…
A Brief Look at the Harrison Narcotic Tax Act of 1914 and its Effects on Kentucky
The War on Drugs Sound familiar? In the United States, this will often bring back memories from multiple generations. From Nixon’s attempts at controlling drugs to Reagan and his wife Nancy amping up the War on Drugs. It might also conjure up memories of the D.A.R.E. program or Drug Abuse Resistance Education that many students…
The Checkered Life of John A. Joyce: Descent Into Madness and a Trip Down to Botany Bay
Some of you will be familiar with Col. John Alexander Joyce. An immigrant from Ireland who spent many of his formative years in Kentucky, he would go on to become a noted military officer, poet, author, and player in the 19th-century American politico. He also had run-ins with the law (e.g. the whiskey affair), received…
Kentucky’s Titular “Demon Slayer” and Escape Artist and the Death of a Salesman
In 1927, 26-year-old Alex Runion, a World War veteran and criminal with charged in three states, was charged with the murder of automobile salesman Louis Riley near Newport, Kentucky. It was alleged by local police that Runion “fired the fatal shot after Riley had been ‘taken for a ride’.” A year later in 1928, while…
UofL Health – UofL Hospital
The following information has been re-published as a courtesy per the request and approval of UofL Health – UofL Hospital. Kentucky Historic Institutions does not own the proceeding information and photographs; UofL Health – UofL Hospital retains ownership and all rights and privileges. If you request to use any information or photographs from this page…
We Need Your Help!
We are currently looking to add Kentucky funeral homes to the KHI website. Historically, funeral homes have not only played a crucial part in the grieving process of many families, but they have also helped influence death practices, mourning rituals, and even medical history. In many areas of the US, funeral homes also provided life-saving…
Early Treatment of Kentucky’s “Pauper Idiots and Lunatics” and the Allowance System
In 1939, E. M. Sunley published a short but comprehensive report detailing the early history of the treatment of Kentucky’s “idiots” and “lunatics.” Early on, Sunley noted that Kentucky gave “allowances” of public funds to help with the care of these individuals. After Kentucky entered the Union in the late 18th-century, provisions were made early…
The 1906 Examination for License to Practice Medicine in Kentucky
The following questions were on the examination for licensure to practice medicine in the state of Kentucky in 1906. The questions were taken verbatim. Do you have what it takes to pass the 1906 Board examination to practice medicine? Give it a try! PHYSIOLOGY. 1. Name the glands the secretion of which form the saliva;…
A Micro Case Study of Lobotomy: Miss Sarah Simpson
It was a dry but chilly morning on Thursday, December 8, 1949, when former schoolteacher, Miss Sarah Simpson, walked onto the property of the Booker T. Washington School on Georgetown Street in Lexington. Schoolteacher Miss Marietta Hunter, age 46, was busy starting the day as her students slowly began to pour inside the warm school….
The Historical Use of Restraints in Asylums
According to records from Eastern State Hospital, Lexington, Kentucky, there were several types of mechanical and environmental restraints used on patients. Some of these include camisoles, tying up patients, strong dresses, straitjackets, and the use of seclusion. The following data sample represents the years of 1937 and 1938. They will show the number of patients…
Kentucky Historic Institutions 