Menninger Historic Psychiatry Collections

A. General Collections

1. Newspaper excerpts

Articles addressing mental health and psychiatric issues, 1791- early 1800s.

102-05-05-02

2. Miscellaneous manuscript material

Letters, manuscripts, and photographs by psychiatric, historic, or literary celebrities from the 19th century to the early 20th century. Material is not necessarily pertinent to psychiatry or the study of mental health.

102-04-07-[02-05]

104-04-02-11

B. Collections of Individuals

Clifford Beers (1876-1943), author of the 1908 autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself, chronicled his personal struggle with mental illness and characterized his experiences in mental institutions as including degrading treatment, unqualified staff, and mental and physical abuses. The treatment he was subjected to inspired him to reform care for individuals with mental illnesses in the United States and abroad. In 1909, he founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, which is now known as the National Mental Health Association.

Contains correspondence between Beers and professional colleagues, 1908-1944, and Beers and Clara Louise Jepson, who would become Beers's wife, 1908-1944. Also included are articles about Beers and brochures about the National Committee for Mental Hygiene.

102-03-04-[01-04]

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Beers, Clifford" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11.

2. Bini, Lucio

Lucio Bini (1908-1964), a clinician and co-author of a leading Italian textbook on psychiatry, assisted Ugo Cerletti, a neuropathologist of Genoa, Italy, in experimental electroconvulsive therapy [ECT]. In 1938, the two carried out the first ECT of a schizophrenic patient successfully, a procedure which would replace the pharmacological induction of epilectic seizures. Subsequently this treatment also proved useful in the treatment of depression. Bini and Cerletti’s findings were first put into practice in the United States at Pennsylvania Hospital in 1940.
See Also Cerletti, Ugo

Bini's papers consist of articles, notes, patient notes, and correspondence related to electroconvulsive therapy in one 5" document case. Materials are written in Italian and English.

102-03-04-05

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Bini, Lucio" for contents list.

104-04-02-11.

3. Boisen, Anton

Anton T. Boisen (1876-1965) is known as the founder of the clinical pastoral education movement. Using his own psychotic episodes as problem-solving experiences, Boisen developed his case-study method of psychiatric treatment. Once a chaplain at Topeka State Hospital, where a building was named in his honor, and pastor of the Beecher Bible and Rifle Church in Wabaunsee, Kansas, Boisen taught his theories of psychiatric treatment to chaplains and others engaged in pastoral counseling; he co-founded the Council for the Clinical Training of Theological Students in 1930. Anton Boisen became one of the first clergyman to work as a member of a psychiatric team. Boisen's major books are Exploration of the Inner World (1936), Religion in Crisis and Custom (1945), and his autobiography, Out of Depths (1960) which details five psychotic episodes occurring between 1908 and 1935.

The Boisen collection consists of 7.5" of material covering the time period 1920-1965, including case histories, correspondence of various sorts, reports on the clinical training of theological students, items relating to the Beecher Bible & Rifle Church in Wabaunsee, Kansas, poetry, training lectures, and articles by Boisen.

102-03-04-[07-08]

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Boisen, Anton" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

4. Brown, Muriel

Muriel W. Brown (1892-1980) was a child psychologist and a leading figure in the field of parent education. In 1966 she and cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead co-authored The Wagon and the Star – A Study of the American Community Initiative. Brown had previously prepared two handbooks for community workers (Democracy Means All of Us – How Communities Organize to Study and Meet Community Needs and The Schools and Community Organizations) in 1942 and 1943, as well as published With Focus on Family Living, in 1954. Between 1949 and 1957, Dr. Brown undertook several assignments under the auspices of government agencies and private foundations to help with family-life education and community development programs in Germany, Egypt, and Pakistan.

Contains correspondence, manuscript, publication, and miscellaneous material related to parent education, 1934-1980.

118-08-04-02

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Brown, Muriel" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

5. Cerletti, Ugo

Ugo Cerletti (1877-1963) was a specialist in neurology and neuropsychiatry. In 1928, he became Chair of the Department of Mental and Neurological Diseases at the University of Rome, where he developed electroconvulsive therapy [ECT] for the treatment of several kinds of mental disorders. In his long activity as a psychiatrist and neurologist, Cerletti published 113 original papers regarding subjects such as the pathology of senile plaques in Alzheimer's disease, the structure of neuroglia, the blood-brain barrier, and neurosyphilis. In 1950, he received an honorary degree by the Sorbonne, University of Paris.

Manuscripts, publications, correspondence, research notes, and miscellaneous material. Nearly all contents are written in Italian.

118-04-02-11 through 118-04-03-10

Contents list by box is available.

SEE APPENDIX

"Cerletti, Ugo"

6. Dix, Dorothea

Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) was a Boston schoolteacher who became an advocate for the mentally ill. While teaching Sunday School at a Massachusetts jail, she observed that the mentally ill were housed alongside criminals in cruel and abusive conditions. Dix spent the rest of her life touring jails and almshouses in the United States and Europe and introducing legislation to the U.S. Congress supporting funding for state hospitals; she was successful in developing or founding over 30 state institutions for the mentally ill.

Contains correspondence 1826-1874, bills, and articles by and about Dix 1840s-1870s.

102-03-04-15 and 102-03-05-01

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Dix, Dorthea" for contents list by item..

104-04-02-11

7. Ellis, Henry Havelock

Henry Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) was an English psychologist and author who studied human sexual behavior. He became a qualified physician but devoted himself to scientific study and writing. Although Ellis’s major work, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, was initially banned on charges of obscenity, the seven-volume series played an important role in changing the public attitude toward sexual problems and is now considered a monumental contribution to the field of study.

One document case containing typescripts and letters by H. Havelock Ellis, 1881-1952.

102-03-05-03

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Ellis, Havelock" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

8. Freud, Anna

Anna Freud (1895-1982), daughter of Sigmund Freud, was a founder of child psychoanalysis and one of its foremost practitioners. She also made fundamental contributions to understanding how the ego, or consciousness, functions in averting painful, ego-alien ideas, impulses, and feelings. Born in Vienna, she remained there until 1938 when she and her father moved to London to escape Nazi-dominated Austria. Under the sponsorship of the Topeka Institute for Psychoanalysis, she visited The Menninger Foundation on several occasions

This collection of 7.5" consists of correspondence, the majority between Freud and Dr. Karl Menninger, from 1936-1971, and articles by and about Anna Freud, from 1951-1975.

102-03-05-14 through 102-03-06-01

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Freud, Anna" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11.

9. Freud, Sigmund

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) graduated from a Viennese medical school in 1881. During he time as a student, he worked in the physiological library with Ernst Brucke. In 1893 Freud collaborated with Josef Breuer, a Viennese physician; together they refined and promoted the concept of the unconscious mind. Soon afterwards, Freud’s practice of the free association method replaced hypnotism as the most common means to revive a patient’s buried memories, the discovery of which Freud and Breuer believed was crucial to conquering hysteria. Freud’s further investigations into the nature of the psychoneuroses led him to the development of his theory of personality, introducing concepts such as the id, ego, and superego, life and death instincts, reality and nirvana principles, denial and repression, and emphasizing the existence and importance of infantile sexuality. His contributions in the study of sexual impulses, interpretation of dreams, and psychoanalysis techniques prompted a revolution in the field of psychiatry.
See Also Oberholzer, Emil.

a. Correspondence and articles

Contains correspondence between Freud and colleagues, primarily Emil Oberholzer, 1907-1938, and articles by and about Freud and his work, 1891, 1920s-1960, 1973, & 1991.

102-03-06-[02-03]

(photocopies). Originals in SS.

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Freud, Sigmund" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

b. Articles written or collected by KAM regarding Freud, 1930s-80s.

102-03-06-[04-05]

Contents list.

102-03-06-05

10. George, Kings II, III, IV

King George III (1738-1820) inherited the English crown from his grandfather, George II, in 1760. Some twentieth-century studies have proposed that George was afflicted with porphyria, a blood disease that intoxicates the nervous system and consequently produces agonizing pain, excited overactivity, paralysis, and delirium similar to descriptions of his episodes recorded as early as 1765. Several attacks debilitated the King during the last years of his reign. Personal rule was given to his son George, the Prince Regent who would become George IV, in 1811. Upon George III’s death at Windsor Castle in 1820, he had been rendered blind and deaf and was considered mad.

Letters and legal documents compiled or written by each king or under his reign. For King George III, contains 20th century manuscripts of studies examining the nature of the monarch's mental health.

102-03-06-06

See Menninger Archives finding aid "George II, III, IV" for item list.

104-04-02-11

11. Guntrip, Harry

Harry Guntrip (1901-1975) was a British psychoanalyst and an important object-relations theorist. His publications include Personality Structure and Human Interaction and Schizoid Phenomena, Object-Relations and the Self.

Manuscript material including the first twelve chapters of an unpublished autobiography, 417 pages of material relating to Guntrip's training analysis with Dr. W.R.D. Fairbairn, and 115 pages of notes of research done in conjunction with Dr. Donald W. Winnicott.

102-03-06-[07-08]

12. James, William

William James (1842-1910) was an original thinker and author of Principles of Psychology, a volume that discussed the intersection of the disciplines of psychology, medicine, and philosophy, as well as many other works.

Letters from William James to various recipients, 1894-1910, undated notes and manuscripts entitled "Some Mental Effects of the San Francisco Earthquake."

102-04-01-05

See Menninger Archives finding aid "James, William" for contents list by item.

104-04-02-11

13. Jelliffe, Smith Ely

Smith E. Jelliffe (1866-1945) was a neurologist and psychoanalyst who became known as the father of psychosomatic medicine. He completed his MD in 1889, and founded Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease in the same year. In 1897, following his teaching interest in pharmacology, he began editing the Journal of Pharmacology. Jelliffe practiced Freudian psychoanalysis during his time as clinical professor of mental diseases at Fordham University Medical School, 1907-1913. He also co-authored a book, Diseases of the Nervous System, 1915.

Manuscript material, articles, and publications by Jelliffe and others, 1920s-1945 and correspondence regarding Katherine & Herman Cornell, 1930-31.

102-03-06-04

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Jelliffe, Ely" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

Maine, Harold

See Winslow, Walker

14. Major, Hermon

Hermon S. Major (1876-1961) owned and directed the Major Clinic in Kansas City, Missouri from 1921-1955. This clinic, originally known as the Southwest Sanatorium, was a private psychiatric facility devoted to the treatment of alcoholics.

Photographs, certificates, clinic records, and biographical material, 1890s-1940s.

102-04-01-[12- 13] and 102-05-05-[05 -06]

15. McCormick, Leander Hamilton

L. Hamilton McCormick (1859-1934) was an advocate of phrenology and inventor of characterology, a method of character reading developed in the 1920's. McCormick suggested that uses for characterology included guiding parents and educators, guidance in military promotion of officers, estimation of the kind of thinking patterns one has, a way to judge commercial associates and competitors, guide to hiring, and a guide to marriage selection. He described his theories in his books Characterology and Student’s Course in Characterology.

Diaries kept for the years 1894-1896, 1898, 1913-1919, 1931-1933 kept by McCormick's wife, Constance.

102-04-01-15 through 102-04-02-02

Manuscripts and research notes for Characterology and Student's Course, miscellaneous correspondence.

102-04-02-[03-12, 14]

Photographs and diagrams of busts, skulls, deathmasks. Photographs of human subjects with corresponding research notes.

102-04-01-14 and 102-04-02-13

16. Meyer, Adolf

Adolf Meyer (1866-1950) was a Swiss-born American psychiatrist who became known as “the dean of American psychiatry”. Meyer championed what he termed a psychobiological approach to psychiatry, a methodology that considers a patient’s physical condition, past history, family life, work situation, and other facts that could be relevant when assessing the best treatment technique. A few years after earning his medical degree in 1882, Meyer pursued pathology studies of the mentally ill at the Worchester Lunatic Hospital in Massachusetts; at the same time he was appointed docent in psychiatry at Clark University. In 1902 Meyer was attracted to New York City to coordinate the pathological work of the 13 state mental hospitals; he also accepted a professorship at Cornell University in 1904. In 1913 Johns Hopkins opened its Phipps Psychiatric Clinic with Dr. Meyer as its head; he remained there until his retirement in 1941.

31 pieces of correspondence, 1895-1902, concerning Meyer's work at the Worchester Lunatic Hospital, Massachusetts, and his teaching duties at Clark University.

102-04-03-01

17. Mitchell, S. Weir

S. (Silas) Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) was the founder and first president of the American Neurological Association, as well as a poet and novelist. As an acting assistant surgeon during the Civil War he studied nerve wounds and diseases; after the war, he wrote many articles on a variety of topics, emphasizing the field of neurology. Mitchell served for forty years at the Philadelphia Orthopedic Hospital and Infirmary for Nervous Diseases. His first creative literary efforts were in the realm of poetry; he began his career as a fiction writer with “The Case of George Dedlow”, published in Atlantic Monthly in July 1866. His subsequent novels drew on the themes of psychology and historical romance.

Two undated autographed poems, personal letters to various individuals, 1896-1911, and articles clipped from the American Journal of Medical Sciences, April 1876.

102-04-03-03

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Mitchell, S. Weir" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

18. Nightingale, Florence

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was a promoter of the nursing profession as well as a reformer of hospital sanitation methods. In the service of the British military during the Crimean War, Nightingale developed a system of statistical analysis and polar-area diagramming to chart the number of preventable deaths caused by unsanitary conditions in military hospitals; in doing so she advanced the idea that social phenomena could be objectively measured and subjected to mathematical analysis.

Correspondence between Nightingale and various individuals, 1856-1897

102-04-03-04

19. Oberholzer, Emil

Emil Oberholzer (1882-1958) was a Swiss psychoanalyst who served as president of the Swiss Psychoanalytic Society during the 1920s. A student of Rorschach, Oberholzer resumed research into the application of the inkblot test after the elder scientist’s death and published the first book on the test in the United States in 1924. Oberholzer also trained American psychologists and psychiatrists who then introduced the Rorschach test in the United States. The ten inkblots and major scoring categories have remained in use through the evolution and maturation of clinical psychology.
See Also Freud, Sigmund

a. Miscellaneous Papers

Material pertaining to a variety of subjects including correspondence and manuscripts, heredity, anxiety, hysteria, schizophrenia, children, Washington University students, daily calendars, and individuals, for the years 1911-1958.

102-04-03-05 through 102-04-05-04

Material relating to Rorschach testing.

102-04-05-[01,02, & 04]

See Menninger Archives finding aid " Oberholtzer, Emil" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

b. Research notebooks

Contents of research notebooks filed by disorder or project name. Handwritten notes and data in German, not dated.

118-08-05-[11-14]

20. Ridenour, Nina

Nina Ridenour (1904 – 1996), a clinical psychologist, obtained her PhD in Educational Psychology from New York University in 1941. She served as Director of both the Division on World Affairs and the Division of Education of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene (founded in 1909 by Clifford W. Beers), and consulted for various agencies that promoted mental health. A personal friend of Karl and Will Menninger, she is the author of numerous pamphlets as well as three monographs: Health Supervision of Young Children: A Guide for Practicing Physicians and Child Health Conference Personnel (1955), Mental Health in the United States: A Fifty Year History (1961), the introduction of which Dr. Will wrote the introduction, and Mental Health Education: Principles in the Effective Use of Materials (1969). Ridenour also wrote several plays, the performances of which were sponsored by the American Theatre Wing.

Scientific and literary manuscripts, research notes, correspondence, including correspondence with Dr. Will Menninger, clippings, and subject and organizational files, 1920s-1970s.

102-05-02-[05-11]

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Ridenour, Nina" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

21. Rush, Benjamin

Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), psychiatrist and social reformer, was the only physician to sign the Declaration of Independence. A Philadelphia Quaker by upbringing, he graduated from Princeton at 15, served a six-year medical apprenticeship, and opened a medical practice in Philadelphia after a European tour. At the same time he accepted a chemistry professorship at the Philadelphia College, the first American medical school, in 1769. He was an active social reformer, opposing slavery and the death penalty, while supporting free public schools and higher education for women. Rush was appointed Treasurer of the U.S. Mint in 1797. As a practicing psychiatrist and founder of the modern system of care for the insane, he was involved in the treatment of the insane at Pennsylvania Hospital. Rush also authored the work Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind; published in 1812, it was the first American psychiatry textbook.

Correspondence and papers by both Dr. Benjamin Rush and one of his sons, Richard, and attorney, from 1791-1856.

102-05-03-04

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Rush, Benjamin" for contents list by item.

104-04-02-11.

22. Southard, Elmer Ernest

Elmer Ernest Southard (1876-1920), the first Director of Boston Psychopathic Hospital, was Karl Menninger’s first significant mentor. Their relationship in the Boston setting was close, but cut short due to Southard’s death shortly after Karl returned to Topeka to begin a medical practice with his father, C.F. Southard conceived of and implemented the training of psychiatric social workers and began investigation into the Mental Hygiene of Industry. He was in the final stages of writing the book The Kingdom of Evils at the time of his death, which was published posthumously. Earlier in his career Southard had compiled a book of case histories on World War I veterans, Shell Shock and Other Neuropsychiatric Problems, in collaboration with Norman Fenton, an MD who served during World War I as an assistant in psychology in a base camp.
See Also Karl A. Menninger, Menninger Family Papers

Letters from Southard to Norman Fenton, 1917-1919, and articles written by Southard, 1906-1920. There is one folder containing material that related to Karl Menninger.

102-05-03-[05-06]

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Southard, Elmer Ernest" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

23. Stribling, Francis T.

Francis Stribling (1810-1874) was the first director of the Western Lunatic Asylum (known as Western State Hospital since 1894) from 1840-1874. Stribling embraced the philosophies of moral therapy, an approach that did not label disturbed persons as ill or sick, and thus did not work toward a diagnosis; patients were to be accepted at face value as human beings, a concept that encouraged more humane treatment of the mentally ill. Stribling was also one of the original thirteen founders of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane; today the organization is known as the American Psychiatric Association.

Letters written to Stribling from various individuals, primarily patients and relatives, from 1817-1868.

102-05-03-16

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Stribling, Francis T." for contents list by item.

104-04-02-11

24. Williams, Frankwood Earl

Frankwood E. Williams (1883-1936) was a resident physician of the State Psychopathic Hospital of the University of Michigan and later went to Boston where he served as Executive Officer and First Assistant Physician of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. He was then appointed Medical Director of the Massachusetts Society for Mental Hygiene and Chairman of the Massachusetts Advisory Prison Board. In 1917, Williams went to New York City to join the staff of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, eventually becoming its Medical Director. From 1917-1919 and 1922-1924 he was the chairman of the Mental Hygiene Division of the National Conference of Social Work. Dr. Williams was a noted lecturer and consultant and played a key role in the development of psychiatric social work.

Manuscripts and correspondence from 1915-1936.

102-05-04-[02-03]

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Williams, Frankwood Earl" for contents list by item.

104-04-02-11

25. Winslow, Walker

Walker Winslow, who wrote under the pseudonym Harold Maine, was a patient and employee of several state and Veterans Administration hospitals; Winslow was also a poet and writer who focused on contemporary mental health issues, particularly alcoholism. Winslow developed a relationship with Karl Menninger after sending him a copy of his book, If a Man be Mad, and collaborated with him occasionally on the production of articles about mental health. Winslow also wrote The Menninger Story, a non-fiction account of the Menninger family’s mental health services via the Menninger Foundation, published in 1956.
See Also Charles F. Menninger, Menninger Family Papers
Karl A. Menninger, Menninger Family Papers

Personal correspondence and manuscript material, 1943-1960. The last box contains correspondence between Karl Menninger and Harold Maine (Walker Winslow), C.F. Menninger interview notes, and The Menninger Story reviews.

102-05-04-[04-10]

See Menninger Archives finding aid "Winslow, Walker" for contents list by folder.

104-04-02-11

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