The collection is arranged in approximate chronological order.

Available for research.

Copyright is retained by the authors of these materials, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law (Title 17 US Code). Individual researchers are responsible for using these materials in conformance with copyright law as well as any donor restrictions accompanying the materials.

Processed by Archives staff and YAIO intern Aaron Cusick, 2009

Encoded by Aaron Cusick, 2009

Dorothea Dix Hospital, fomerly known as the The State Hospital at Raleigh, was named for Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), an activist who worked for improving conditions for the mentally ill in hospitals and asylums. Dix influenced North Carolina legislators to remove mentally ill inmates from prisons and to create a state institution where they could receive treatment. A location was chosen in the countryside a short distance outside of Raleigh, North Carolina . The first patient was admitted on February 22, 1856, and, fifty-one males and thirty-nine females were admitted during the next nine months. During the early twentieth century the hospital continued to add more buildings to the facility in addition to new patients. By the 1930's there were over 2,000 patients. Situated on a 425 acre tract of land on the south side of the city of Raleigh, there are more than 120 separate buildings on the site, many of which were constructed during 1910-1930 and 1960-1980. The buildings are used for patient care, offices, shops, warehouses and other activities in support of the hospital.

[Identification of item], PhC.143, Dorothea Dix Hospital Photograph Collection, circa 1890-2000, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC, USA.

The photographs in this collection were pulled out of the state agency records of Dorothea Dix Hospital shortly after the records were transferred to the State Archives in August of 2008.

The photographs in this collection include both interior and exterior views of the hospital's buildings and facilities, color transparencies of aerial views of the facilities from 1966, and a copy of the elevation and diagram for the "North Carolina Hospital for the Insane" by A.J. Davis, taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photographs of staff and patients show a blood donation drive circa the 1940s, a Halloween party from 1946, and Christmas parties circa the 1960s. An oversized composite photo shows physicians and male nurses from the late 1890s or early 1900s. Negatives from circa the 1990s depict group shots of the nursing staff. A series of six photographs documents the 2000 Spring Festival. Other photographs include an exhibit at the 1929 NC State Fair of crafts made by hospital patients, women in a field picking soy beans, an unidentified Polaroid of two men, a priest and young boy fishing on a pier, and the grave marker of Dorothea Dix located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.