Welcome to your bi-weekly newsletter from Connecticut Explored with the latest stories, the newest Grating the Nutmeg podcast, programs and exhibitions from our partners to see/watch this month, and more!
In this issue of the newsletter, we explore the history of mental health in Connecticut.
Treating the Mind in Times Past
Common Struggle, Individual Experience: An Exhibition about Mental Health, presented by Hartford HealthCare Institute of Living, is on view at the Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) through October 16, 2022, Tuesday through Friday, 12 to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Location: One Elizabeth Street, Hartford. For a virtual tour of the exhibition visit chs.org/exhibition/common-struggle-individual-experience/.
According to Ben Gammell, Director of Exhibitions at the Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library (CHS), the “structure, flow, and content of the exhibit focuses on the personal experiences” of people with mental health challenges. Their stories appear in letters, photographs, medical records, and books reaching back to the 1700s and in contemporary interviews with individuals who shared their struggles with the CHS during the winter of 2020 – 2021. To present mental health-related stories from the past, the CHS exhibitions team looked for evidence in the museum’s collection. Some stories are well documented, such as that of Faith Trumbull Huntington, daughter of Connecticut’s colonial governor Jonathan Trumbull who took her own life during the Revolutionary War. Mary Fish Noyes chronicled her troubles in her diary in 1771. Clifford Beers wrote in his 1908 book A Mind That Found Itself, “Until some one tells just such a story as mine and tells it sanely, needless abuse of helpless thousands will continue.” And Terese Mayer, in a 2021 interview with the CHS, shares, “I can hide it really well. From the outside it may appear that I’m functioning great, but I could be falling apart inside.”
Many caregivers, unlike the wealthy Trumbull family, had few resources and tried to care for loved ones on their own. Throughout history, even with the establishment of asylums and hospitals, most people struggling with their mental health were cared for at home by family members.
The exhibit also provides a shocking window into professional treatment in the 1830s. In 1839, soon after the opening of the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane (a privately-run institution that became the Institute of Living), a commission began investigating the need for a state-run facility (the eventual Connecticut Hospital for the Insane) and administered a survey to town physicians to evaluate the number of people in need of professional mental health treatment. In response to this survey, Voluntown selectman Dr. Harvey Campbell wrote about 53-year-old Patrick Bentum, an impoverished Black man who had been “insane” for 20 years and had been “chained and handcuffed for the first 3-4 years” before Campbell took charge of him.
The CHS interviewed 21 people, and excerpts from these interviews appear on video kiosks throughout the exhibition. The diversity of participants and viewpoints helps convey the topic’s complexity and relevance.
Understanding how people have struggled with mental health throughout history provides a context for our own struggles today. Supported in part with both a $21,225 Planning Grant and a $35,000 Implementation Grant from CTHumanities, “this exhibition explores how society has sought and continues to seek care for the mind and mental health.”
Game Changers: The Connecticut Historical Society
Connecticut Explored recognized the The Connecticut Historical Society’s current exhibition, Common Struggle, Individual Experience: An Exhibition About Mental Health, as one of our 20 Game Changers. In reviewing this nomination Dr. Fiona Vernal noted, “Taking mental health as a legitimate subject of historical inquiry is one of the major contributions of this exhibition to equity and social justice [and]an important step in destigmatizing mental health.”
The CHS is also recognized for A Brief History of Connecticut’s LGBTQ Community and The Work Must Be Done: Women of Color and the Right to Vote. In 2019 the CHS worked with Central Connecticut State University Assistant Professor of History William Mann, CCSU students, and the university’s GLBTQ archive to develop a traveling exhibition and digital timeline (available online, chs.org/lgbtq). [See Grating the Nutmeg episode 119.]
The Work Must Be Done is a project led by Dr. Brittney Yancy of Goodwin University in Hartford and CHS’s Dr. Karen Li Miller. The project, available online at research.chs.org/women-of-color-suffrage/, has uncovered exciting new research about women of color who worked for women’s voting rights, who voted, and who were political leaders. The project pulls back the curtain on the racism women of color encountered and resisted within the women’s suffrage movement. [See “Uncovering African American Women’s Fight for Suffrage,” Summer 2020, and Grating the Nutmeg episode 97.]
Visit chs.org. CHS is recognized with a story in the Fall 2022 issue (see page 52) and the Grating the Nutmeg podcast episode released September 15 (below).
150. Common Struggle, Individual Experience: How Can Museums Talk About Mental Health? (CTE Game Changer Series)
In this episode of Grating the Nutmeg, Natalie Belanger speaks with her CHS colleagues who worked in crafting this timely exhibition. Ben Gammell is the CHS's Director of Exhibitions, and Karen Li Miller is Research Historian. Together, they talk about the challenges of speaking for historical people who can't speak for themselves, and how honored they felt to be entrusted with the stories of current Connecticans living with mental health challenges.
Common Struggle, Individual Experience has been honored as one of CT Explored's 20 “Game Changers” whose work is advancing the study, interpretation, and dissemination of Connecticut history. It has also received the AASLH Leadership in History 2022 Award. The exhibition is on view at the Connecticut Historical Society until October 16, 2022. You can take a virtual tour here!
Connecticut Explored is celebrating its 20th anniversary with “20 for 20: Innovation in Connecticut History,” a series of articles, podcasts, and public programs that highlight 20 "Game Changers" in the field of Connecticut history. The insights and ideas we gather through this five-minute survey will help individuals and organizations who are committed to keeping Connecticut history vibrant and relevant. Thank you for your time! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CHS915
This episode of Grating the Nutmeg was produced by Natalie Belanger and engineered by Patrick O’Sullivan of High Wattage Media www.highwattagemedia.com/
Do You or a Loved One Need Help?
If you or a loved one is experiencing symptoms of mental illness, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) can assist you in finding treatment. Call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357), or text your zip code to 435748 (HELP4U) for 24-hour, free and confidential treatment referral.
Programs and Exhibitions to Enjoy This Month
Lebanon Town Militia Reenactment Company Encampment
Visit Lebanon on October 4 for the Lebanon Town Militia reenactment company encampment, and during The Last Green Valley’s annual Walktober event, September 17 to November 6.
Lebanon Historical Society, historyoflebanon.org
The Story Beneath Our Feet: Pyquag and “Weathersfield”
On view at the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum through December 31 is a remarkable exhibition exploring the earliest years of Wethersfield history through archaeological evidence uncovered on museum property in 2017. The Story Beneath Our Feet: Pyquag and “Weathersfield” offers an extraordinary glimpse into the lives of Wethersfield’s settlers in the 17th century.
The exhibition features fragmented household and trade items unearthed during excavation behind the Silas Deane House. Also discovered was physical evidence of a palisade wall. A facsimile of the palisade is part of the exhibition.
Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum, webb-deane-stevens.org
Dreams and Memories at the Florence Griswold Museum
From October 1, 2022 through May 14, 2023 the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme presents the exhibition Dreams and Memories, an exploration of historic and contemporary art from the museum’s permanent collection that considers these themes as drivers of artistic creativity and expressions of powerful forces in American society.
Florence Griswold Museum, florencegriswoldmuseum.org
Editors’ Picks
Destination: The Institute of Living (c) Connecticut Explored Inc. Feb/Mar/Apr 2004
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center: Once the Home for “Incurables” (c) Connecticut Explored Inc. Feb/Mar/Apr 2004
142. The Institute of Living at 200 Produced by Natalie Belanger. Mixed by Patrick O'Sullivan.
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