Böcker av Alma Wynelle Deese

Asylums were first established to care for the unfortunates of society. It was only later they acquired a negative image. In Kentuckys First Asylum, author Alma Wynelle Deese explores this issue by dissecting the inner workings of the Eastern Kentucky Asylum, Kentuckys First Asylum and the second state-supported asylum to be established in the United States. She describes the people who were involved in the creation and maintenance of a medical school, law department, and lunatic asylum in Lexington, Kentucky.Using historical data, Deese presents a fictionalized narrative to explore this institution's history from 1817 to the 1990s-including a chapter dedicated to 1906, a pivotal year for Eastern Kentucky Asylum. That year, four employees were charged in the murder of a patient, and this incident set the stage for the past and present history of this facility.Kentuckys First Asylum provides a historical understanding of one early asylum that became a state hospital and serves to give broader context for the understanding of the current mental health system. It provides a platform to better comprehend the problems and processes of American psychiatric care.

Compare Lexington of the past from postcards with current buildings and scenery using current color photography. The author collected most of the postcards, researched them, and wrote the text to reflect the places that are landmarks in Lexington. See the downtown streets of long ago and their development today. Learn about postcard history while enjoying a block-by-block tour of the city and its gardens and cemetery. Old timers will recognize places from the postcards, while Baby Boomers and beyond will delight in the progress Lexington reflects today in new pictures.