September 8th, 2008
The Meteor – Bryce Hospital Newspaper
Our little paper, gotten up for the benefit of the patients of the Alabama Insane Hospital and to give the patrons of the institution an insight into some details of its practical operations, is printed on quarto Novelty Press, without expense to the State—the whole labor of type-setting and putting to press being performed by the patients, or by employees of the Hospital in intervals of leisure from their regular duties…
That’s how The Meteor—a newspaper written and published by Bryce Hospital’s patients—describes itself in its inaugural issue published in 1872. The Alabama Department of Archives and History has put eleven issues of The Meteor online in PDF format (note that at the time of this writing the link for the second issue isn’t working). While not quite the juicy rag you might hope for, the paper’s articles do offer some glimpses of life at the hospital as well as into the minds of the patients.
My favorite part is from the very first issue where one patient compares Alabama’s hospital for the insane with its neighbor the state university by saying, “The inmates of the University come to acquire ideas. We to get rid of them.”
Dr Isaac Ray and Dr Kirkbride are mentioned briefly in the first issue. And Dr Pliny Earle is applauded for his humor in an annual report from Northampton State Hospital, while playfully chided for referring to baby pigs as “infants” (Oh, that 19th century humor…). On the same page, Dorothea Dix is also mentioned and described as in excellent health and “still actively engaged in doing good,” while also contemplating a visit to Bryce.
On page two of issue eight, volume two, the paper’s editor (a patient at the hospital) describes someone’s publicized disbelief that The Meteor is the work of the insane. With some humor, the editor says, “He manifestly thinks the Meteor wires are worked by some one who is not insane. With this we find no fault. It is our own conviction. But unfortunately we can’t get the Superintendent to see it.”
Obviously the editor of The Meteor was an intelligent person with not a small amount of wit. And in spite of the sometimes tiresome 19th-century prose, reading the articles can be fascinating and often enjoyable. There’s a whole lot more than what I’ve described above, but I’m not going to write about it all here. I recommend reading the issues for yourself.
And for those who don’t like to read (I know you’re out there), I also came across these images of the Kirkbride on Alabama Mosaic:
1) Administration Building of Bryce Hospital
That is a sweet find. I have always loved reading those old in house news papers. It is quite interesting to see how the acted, thought, and looked back in their “heydays”!