Skip to main content

Nashville Public Library Digital Collections

Search

Advanced Search

Find results with:

Add another field

Search by date

Search by date:
from:
to
to:

Searching collections:

All Collections

Limit search to specific collections

Home

Nashville Public Library Digital Collection

The Insane Asylum of Tenn., circa 1859

Reference URL

Share

Save to favorites

To link to this object, paste this link in email, IM or document
To embed this object, paste this HTML in website

The Insane Asylum of Tenn., circa 1859

View Description

Loading content ...

you wish to report:

Your comment:

Your Name:

...

Back to top

Powered by CONTENTdm®

Select the collections to add or remove from your search

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

Select All Collections

N

Nashville Public Library's Digital Collections

OK

Cancel

Title	The Insane Asylum of Tenn., circa 1859
Personal name	Eichbaum, William A., 1787-1873--Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Corporate name	Tennessee Lunatic Asylum
Topical entry	Architecture Buildings Medicine Public Health Architecture--Tennessee--Nashville Hospitals--Tennessee--Nashville Historic buildings--Tennessee--Nashville Psychiatric hospitals--Tennessee--Nashville Hospital buildings--Tennessee--Nashville Mental health facilities--Tennessee--Nashville Architecture--Details Towers--Tennessee--Nashville Architectural elements--Tennessee--Nashville Drawing--Tennessee--Nashville
Geographic entry	Nashville (Tenn.)--History--Sources Murfreesboro Turnpike (Nashville, Tenn.) Nashville (Tenn.)--Buildings, structures, etc. Nashville (Tenn.)--Social conditions
Description	A page from a mounted and bound volume of twenty-five pen-and-ink wash drawings, and two pen-and-ink maps of Nashville created by William A. Eichbaum during the 1850s. Eichbaum was a Nashville bookseller and resident for fifty years. This page shows a drawing of the Tennessee Hospital for the Insane in Nashville, Tennessee. This building opened in 1851 after Dorthea Dix, a social reformer for the treatment of the mentally ill, prompted the state legislature to move the care center from its inadequate quarters at Twelfth Avenue South and Division Street. The new hospital site contained 455 acres of land, six miles from the downtown center of Nashville, on the Murfreesboro Turnpike. The hospital structure was erected in the castellated style. The center, far right, and far left portions of the building were four stories high, while the intervening ranges and wings were three stories high. Twenty-four octagonal towers were also part of the construction. This building remained the home of the asylum from 1851 to 1995. During that period it underwent several changes of name, becoming first the Tennessee Hospital for the Insane, then, upon incorporation with the developing system of state mental hospitals, Central Hospital for the Insane, and finally Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute. Forms part of the William A. Eichbaum Sketchbook. 1 drawing : col. ; 5.75 x 9 in.
Creator	Eichbaum, William A., 1787-1873
Publisher	Special Collections Division of the Nashville Public Library, 615 Church Street, Nashville, Tennessee, 37219
Date	ca. 1859
Type	Still Image; Drawings; Sketchbooks
Format	image/jpeg
Identifier	Eich - 04 - insane asylum
Language	English
Relation	William A. Eichbaum Sketchbook
Coverage	1850-1859
Rights	U.S. and international copyright laws protect this digital content, which is provided for educational purposes only and may not be downloaded, reproduced, or distributed for any other purpose without written permission. Please contact the Special Collections Division of the Nashville Public Library, 615 Church Street, Nashville, Tennessee, 37219. Telephone (615) 862-5782.
Location	Closed Stacks- Eich - 04 - insane asylum