Medical

Kings Park Psychiatric Center, or “the Psych Center” as it is known locally, was unique for its time, as its focus was on patient care and making the hospital as “homelike” as possible.

The facility was made up of a series of smaller buildings to give the feeling of community to the patients and staff alike, and both men and women were treated fairly and humanely. Long Island was home to many immigrants, some of whom had difficulty adjusting to life in the United States. This unique population led to interesting personal stories of those who worked at this facility, those who were institutionalized, and their families. The authors took the time to listen to their stories and endeavored to understand their pasts and recognize how these events continue to influence the mental-health industry today. Pictured throughout are the physical relics of the now-abandoned Psych Center, where these stories unfurled.

In the fall of 1885, the City of New York transferred 55 men and women living at the Kings County Asylum to the new St. Johnland farm colony “to promote rational outdoor living, exercise, and occupation.” In 1887, just a few miles away at Central Islip, another City of New York farm colony was established for the chronically mentally ill. Founded on the principles of moral therapy, the farm colonies provided treatment, recreation, religious services, and hope towards integration back into society for patients. In 1931, Pilgrim State was constructed as a final solution to address the growing needs of Long Island’s state hospital system. By 1955, more than 32,000 individuals were receiving board and care at the three facilities. This publication illustrates the legacy of humility, beneficence, and devotion to the mentally ill for over 111 years of the Long Island State Hospitals’ joint operations through photographs appearing courtesy of a private collection.

For 141 years, Hudson River State Hospital was home to tens of thousands of individuals suffering from mental illness.

Famous architects Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux drafted the main building in 1869. The facility grew from a 208-acre parcel in 1871 with seven patients to 752 acres with five dozen separate buildings containing nearly 6,000 patients in 1954. The main building was constructed on a Kirkbride plan, a treating philosophy centered around an ornate building of equal proportions staffed by employees who integrated dignity and compassion into health care. Famous architects Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux drafted the main building in 1869. The landscape was penned by Frederick Law Olmsted, perhaps best known for the design of New York City's Central Park.

The Medical Society of Erie County was founded on September 1, 1821, by the first physician in Erie County, Cyrenius Chapin, MD. It began as a means of fulfilling a requirement of New York State law, since all physicians within the state were required to belong to a local medical society at that time. Through the years, the Medical Society of Erie County has been marked by innovative physician leaders who paved the way for the development of Buffalo. Notably, by 1903, Buffalo had the lowest death rate of any city of its size in the world based on the impact of Buffalo’s health commissioner during the typhoid pandemic, Ernest Wende, MD. Furthermore, leaders of the Medical Society of Erie County founded the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and played a critical role in the development and advancement of Buffalo’s regional hospitals, both yesterday and today. As we confront today’s global pandemic, we are pleased to note that Erie County’s current health commissioner, Gale Burstein, MD, MPH, is also a distinguished member of the Medical Society of Erie County.

The majesty of New York's Finger Lakes region has produced some equally majestic women who have left their mark on American history. From women medical pioneers like Clara Barton and Elizabeth Blackwell to aviator Blanche Stuart Scott and writer Sarah Hopkins Bradford, the iconic dames of New York's most beautiful region are not to be overlooked. Author Julie Cummins reveals remarkable women of the Finger Lakes.

The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center is a visual journey through nursing history at Albany Medical Center from the founding of Albany Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1897 to the accomplishments of present-day nurses. Early nurses operated under the mandate "All nursing necessary for the hospital," and their duties included cleaning, preparing special diets, and caring for patients. Nurses gave twenty-four-hour-a-day care during the flu epidemic of 1918, provided military health care during both world wars, and manned the iron lungs during the polio epidemics of the 1940s and 1950s. Today, nurses at Albany Medical Center continue at the forefront of sophisticated, high-tech medical care.

The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center follows nursing from the age of strict curfews and required nursing uniforms to the modern era of greater nursing freedom and responsibility. As nursing practice evolved, so did attire. Hats, gloves, high collars, caps, and ankle-length dresses gave way to above-the-knee hemlines, pantsuits, scrubs, and bare heads. Among celebrated Albany graduates are Anne Strong (class of 1906), inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame, and Nancy Cameron (class of 1900), decorated with the Royal Red Cross and received by Queen Alexandra during World War I.

For more than half a century, a deadly viral disease known as poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis, caused permanent crippling injury to thousands of Americans. Many died from polio; others were disabled for life. Summertime epidemics brought fear to anxious parents who tried to protect their children during "polio season." Although a cure was never found, protection came in the form of a vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, a grantee of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The foundation, better known as the March of Dimes, succeeded in its efforts to eradicate polio from the United States and expanded its mission to the prevention of birth defects and infant mortality. March of Dimes documents one of the most successful voluntary health organizations in history. Founded by Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1938, the March of Dimes thrives on the dedication and energy of volunteers. American celebrities from Eddie Cantor to Helen Hayes and Elvis Presley have joined the fight against polio and birth defects. Millions participate in WalkAmerica, the nation's best-known walkathon fund-raiser, and March of Dimes poster children have symbolized the challenge of life with crippling diseases. Unlike any other, the March of Dimes story is an astonishing blend of science, medicine, and American popular culture.

The first hospital in St. Lawrence County, Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center opened in 1885 as the Ogdensburg City Hospital and Orphan Asylum. Although always a community-owned organization, it was managed by the Grey Nuns, Sisters of Charity, until 1976. The hospital's name changed twice: first in 1918 to A. Barton Hepburn Hospital to honor the local banker and donor, and again in 2000 to Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in recognition of an exceptional gift from its own Dr. E. Garfield Claxton. The hospital was the home of a nursing school, with its first graduating class in 1905 and its last in 1968. With an innovative group of caregivers and community members, Claxton-Hepburn was the first to bring many new services to the region, including an artificial kidney machine in the late 1960s, long before many urban hospitals had one. In the 1990s and 2000s, the county's first dialysis center and comprehensive cancer center were constructed. Today, Claxton-Hepburn serves as a regional referral center for dialysis, radiation and medical oncology, psychiatry, and wound healing.