Gendered and Racialized Experiences at Central State Hospital, Indianapolis, 1877 - 1910

Abstract

“Gendered and Racialized Experiences at Central State Hospital, Indianapolis, 1877 – 1910” analyzes the treatment of African American patients at the now-defunct Central State Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, from the late 1870s through the 1900s. This thesis examines the impact of scientific racism and institutionalized sexism on female African American patients’ diagnoses, medical treatment, and the outcome of institutionalization through a close reading of hospital publications and a series of statistical studies of patient data. This thesis also analyzes the intersection of race and gender through the case study of one African American woman, Elizabeth Williams Furniss, who was institutionalized during the 1890s until her death in 1909. I argue that scientific racism and a deeply entrenched sexism significantly shaped the treatment of African American patients and women of all races throughout the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Preconceived notions of race, gender, and class determined diagnoses, treatments, and treatments outcomes, without regard to individual patients’ needs. I also suggest ways for historians to identify and measure the impact of scientific racism and institutionalized sexism on African American patients in northern psychiatric institutions through statistical studies of patient data.