Submitted by acpowe16 on Thu, 10/17/2019 - 15:51
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On page 178 of volume 2 of Isaac T. Hopper’s diary, it is recorded that a former incarcerated man, James E. Kerr, seeking help from the Prison Association of New York, used to keep the books for one Dr. Brigham of the State Asylum at Utica. This doctor of the Utica Asylum is Amariah Brigham, a pioneer in the study of mental illness and the institutional treatment of the insane.

Brigham was born on December 26th 1798 in New Marlboro, Massachusetts. His father died when Brigham was still young, and so he was taken in by his paternal uncle, a notable physician, for guidance and education in the field. Unfortunately his uncle died shortly after his father, so this arrangement did not last long. At the young age of thirteen, Brigham then traveled to Albany and obtained  a job as a clerk in a bookstore, where he stayed for three years. He then returned home to his mother’s house in Massachusetts and studied medicine under Dr. E. C. Peet [1]

He traveled around for a time, all while studying medicine. He set up a practice in Enfield, Massachusetts in 1821 for two years before moving instate to Greenfield, where he stayed for seven years.[2] After this period, Brigham departed the United States and traveled abroad. On his return, he was appointed head of the lunatic asylum of Hartford, Connecticut in 1831. [3] He married Susan Root in 1833, and the couple went on to have four children total. In 1842, he accepted a similar administrative position at the New York State Lunatic Asylum at Utica.[4]

His progressive and humanistic work at Utica gained a considerable reputation, both within the nation and abroad.[5]  He instigated the creation of The Opal, a literary journal written by the inhabitants of the asylum.[6] Brigham was also well known for his contribution to contemporary medical literature.[7]  In fact, New York’s Commercial Advertiser  reported that “few of his professional brethren, either in this country or in Europe, have attained a higher or better reputation he has acquired in [his] branch of medical science”.[8] Notably, he also established the quarterly American Journal of Insanity in July 1844, the first publication of the kind.[9] 

In addition to his position at Utica, his editorship of the American Journal of Insanity, Brigham often testified in court and delivered popular lectures. This great workload appears to have caused great strain, as he began to have ill health in early 1848. Both his mother and only son died later this same year. His health weakened throughout 1849, and in August he protracted dysentery and eventually died from the disease on September 8th, 1849.[10]

 

 

 

 

Sources:

[1] W.O. McClure, Biographical Sketch of Amariah Brigham, M.D., (Utica, NY: Curtiss & White, Printers, 1858), 5, https://books.google.com/books?id=A0EXAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=true.

[2] Ibid., 7-8.

[3] "Mortuary Notice." Evening Post (New York, New York) XLVII, September 10, 1849: [2]. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2:10945F2563DD7908@EANX-13E3C72F0FA83D60@2396646-13D79564E8329E70@1-13F9834B6F5E7596@Mortuary+Notice.  

[4]  Howard A. Kelly and Walter L. Burrage, American Medical Biographies (Baltimore, MD: The Norman, Remington Company, 1920), 144-5.

[5] "Mortuary Notice." Evening Post (New York, New York) XLVII, September 10, 1849: [2]. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers.

[6] Kelly and Burrage, American Medical Biographies, 144-5.

[7] "Mortuary Notice." Evening Post (New York, New York) XLVII, September 10, 1849: [2]. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers.

[8]  "Mortuary Notice." Commercial Advertiser (New York, New York) LII, September 10, 1849: [2]. Readex: America's Historical Newspapers. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2:1044E924036998A0@EANX-1405B0D2C5939CC0@2396646-14059CC11A747600@1-140B58FD6FAAED08@Mortuary+Notice.

[9] Kelly and Burrage, American Medical Biographies, 144-5.

[10] “Library Collections: The Moral Treatment of Insanity,” Disability History Museum, (Straight Ahead Pictures, Inc, n.d.), https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=1246&page=all.

Note Type
Image
print portrait of brigham

Portrait found in the beginning of A Biographical Sketch of Amariah Brigham, published in 1858.

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End Date
Diary References