This collection is made up of seven letters to Dr. Francis T. Stribling, in his capacity as director of the Western Lunatic Asylum in Staunton, Virginia. They include inquiries about patients at the institution, queries about admissions, and an 1855 printed circular request by the Commission on Lunacy, Massachusetts, for patient information to include in their census/report.
See the box and folder listing in this document for more information about each item in this collection.
The following biographical note is extracted directly from Francis T. Stribling Correspondence Finding Aid, Kansas Historical Society (accessed December 8, 2023: https://www.kshs.org/archives/223261).
"Francis Taliaferro Stribling, born in 1810 in Virginia, was quite young when he took over as the first director of Virginia's Western State Hospital for the insane. Founded as Western Lunatic Asylum in 1825 and opened to patients in 1828, Dr. Stribling began working there in 1836 or 1840 and remained the institution's director until his death in 1874, on 23 July.
Stribling had been the first graduate of the University of Virginia Medical School in 1830. A disciple of the 'moral medicine' movement, he was a close friend of Dorothea Dix. He was also one of the founding members of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane in 1844, which eventually became the American Psychiatric Association."
