Central State studies done by alumna

The story of Central State Hospital is being retold through rediscovered artifacts. 

Kari Brown, Georgia College alumna and communications and public relations director of Central State Hospital, began the task of finding a world of lost photographs, documents, ledgers and personal effects while reorganizing the asylum museum. The items were hidden in a back room for decades. Brown has been collecting these items for two years.

“One of the coolest things about sorting through the physical history of the hospital is knowing that we still have information and artifacts that no other hospitals have anymore,” Brown said. “We have detailed reports and documents written by superintendents which are things that you’re not going to see from anyone else. They are 100 percent authentic to the hospital.”

With the overwhelming task at hand, Brown reached out to GC staff, since not a single one of the items in storage had been catalogued or inventoried.

In the beginning, much of the work being done was simply digging through boxes that had been lying around for decades, and this eventually put Brown in contact with GC Archivist Josh Kitchens.

“When you work with a collection, it basically be

comes a child,” Kitchens said. “You can’t help but love it.”

In order to tackle the mountains of photographs, Brown and Kitchens used GC interns and community volunteers to create a rough finder’s guide for the hospital. On community work days these community volunteers, often former Central State Hospital employees, could come to help to sort and identify the decades in which the patients in photographs lived. When GC interns come out, they generally work for about three months at a time and learn about the history of the hospital during each session.

In order to successfully catalogue, archive and preserve the documents and personal effects at hand, GC Special Collections has worked to create the first inventory ever done for the Central State Hospital Museum. Kitchens and other GC interns have gotten an up close and personal look at a history of people who often never had a voice.

“The personal effects that were left behind were most likely items that would have been the few things a patient had on their person when admitted to the hospital,” Kitchens said. “These items were often very important, practical and, more importantly, offer a picture of what these people held dear to them.”

Some of the personal effects that were rediscovered include antique watches, lighters, reading glasses, hand-crafted jewelry, wallets and personal photographs. All of the items can be viewed in the Central State Hospital museum amongst other antique hospital paraphernalia.

According to Kitchens, patient photographs cannot be published or displayed for viewing in the Central State museum. Although they have worked to organize these photos by time period, they will remain an intriguing secret from the public eye.

“I cannot show you the photographs of patients or allow them to be published based on patient confidentiality rules,” Brown said. “Photos of patients must be kept out of the public eye for 75 years after their death, and since a lot of the photographs have little or no labeling it is difficult to determine how old they are.”

According to Brown, Central State Hospital has been present in Milledgeville for 169 years, and in its peak it housed and treated over 13,000 patients. The hospital had its own police department, fire department, post office and zip code. During its peak, it was the largest mental health asylum in the entire world. This recognition brings with it a type of morbid curiosity to tourists and researchers. However, the rediscovery of thousands of photographs, ledgers, documents and personal effects has given a very real context to the history of the hospital.

“For example some of the photos show nurses taking patients to local shows or nurses combing a patient’s hair,” Brown said. “Most of the photos are candid and provide a good chance to see what happened in treatment of mental illness over time. Most importantly, though, I think the photos show that the people that have worked at Central State over time truly have a passion for the people they care for.”

Some of the ledgers and documentation found were records kept by the hospital. Whenever a doctor, patient or nurse bought something through Central State credit it was recorded in ledgers that are now also on display.

“The museum has a lot of interesting items that bring curious tourists in for visits. We have real lobotomy equipment, straitjackets, cross sections of human brains with mental illnesses, patient artwork, antique dental equipment and also a very interesting kitchen display,” Brown said. “Up until 1992 we had the largest kitchen in the world.”

To set up a tour of the Central State Hospital Museum, contact Kari Brown, director of communications and public relations at (478) 445-4128. On this tour, the progression of healthcare over time can be seen through the authentic medical equipment on display as well as the worn out personal effects of former patients.