[Log Book]: Essex County Mental Hospital Nurse Station Log

Title: [Log Book]: Essex County Mental Hospital Nurse Station Log
Publication: Essex County, New Jersey: 1940-1941

Description: Hardcover. Small quarto. Measuring 5.5" x 12.5". Black cloth over stiff paper boards with paper label. Rubbing and some mustiness else very good.

A ledger kept at the nursing station of a mental hospital between July 30, 1940 and January 5, 1941 in Essex County, New Jersey. Although not mentioned in the log we suspect the hospital was most likely Overbrook Asylum. The log is written over 152 pages and includes various short accounts of patients with notes such as: "G. N---- became extremely excited and jumped over partition shouting she wanted to kill herself," "P. F---- yelling and talking in German all night. Restless - trying to get out of bed," and "Catherine C---- has slight welt on head, complains of pain, states that another patient bumped her head rather forcefully against bedside table while playfully wrestling with her."

The log is written in various hands from different nurses and includes behaviors, medications given, therapies that were tested including the use of placebos, and a number of deaths. The staff employed occupational therapy which involved making quilts, chairs, soap, and other items. When not in therapy, they were taken to movies and live entertainment at the bandstand gazebo. Overbrook began in 1898 as a mental institution in Northern New Jersey located on a 90-acre site that included a farm, woodworking shop, and laundry facility. The 1940s saw a rise in the patient population which decreased in the 1960s with newer medications allowing some people to presumably no longer need full-time care. A new hospital, Essex County Hospital Center, was built in 2006 and the Overbrook Hospital was abandoned.

An extensive look at mental health care in the 1940s.

Seller ID: 413227

Subject: Ephemera