
Typically, when one thinks about the press, we think of paparazzi and that most of the information given in any magazine is false. However, the press during the 1800’s was the opposite of any magazine now, and was used as tools to expose the awful treatment of the patients at Blackwell Asylum. During the time that Blackwell Island was open as an asylum, many wrong doings of treatments were performed to the patients. Therefore, heroic Nellie Bly went in undercover to expose the way the patients were treated in a perspective from a person in the asylum. This would lead to the way the press was used to shut the asylum down, and the benefits the mentally ill gained from this exposure. Throughout the 1800’s, the press was seen as a policing body that acknowledges the mistreatment of the patients and would report it to the public. By the press exposing the cruel treatment of patients, the publications caused the government to shut down the Blackwell Asylum, and increase funding for mental health agencies. 

For 56 years, the asylum was running and had thousands of patients. Blackwell Asylum continuously received press to expose the most interesting patients, also known as characters, and to report about this fascinating island. These characters were patients of the asylum that the press would talk about and have a great audience reading about their behaviors. In response to many enlightening articles about the issues with the asylum, like the one from Nellie Bly, the government realized that the asylum needed to be shut down. 

The article, “The Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island and the New York press,” by Samantha Boardman and George Makari, describes the founding of the insane asylum built on a Blackwell Island in New York City. It states how the asylum came to be and what is was like during the times it was open. Since the beginning of the 19th century, there was a population boom of immigrants from all over the world. With many new and more people and many more who were mentally sick, they had to find more places to locate people who were sick and in need of help. Therefore, in 1828, New York City (NYC) purchased Blackwell Island from Blackwell family. The city government officials decided to build the first ever publicly funded mental hospital and municipal mental hospital in the United States. The city was going to make the island a state-of-the-art facility to help classify mental illness. Dr. John McDonald said that there should be four sections to the asylum to help specify where people should go: the “noisy, destructive, and violent,” “the idiots,” “the convalescents,” and an intermediate class for “those in the first stages of convalescence and such incurables are harmless and not possessed of bad habits.” These four sections were supposed to help make the treatments of the patients easier to access and more successful. However, 11 years later after building the asylum, they only ended up with two sections out of the four. Additionally, many of the staff who worked as guards and attendants was previous convicts of robbers and prostitutes. The quality of life for the patients was not impressive, for the conditions of the asylum were not appropaite for the over crowded number of patients, and the doctors were not concerning to the patients enough. 

“The Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island and the New York press” was significant to the essay “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” by Nellie Bly because it describes how the press played a role in shutting the asylum down. As the press did have many characters that they would like to publish about, Bly attempted to get a look into the problems first hand. Not just what the people are like in the asylum, but how they are treated. With her perspective of the asylum, it showed that it was not only the issue of the island being overcrowded, but also the treatment of the patients. This article gives insight as to why Bly would put herself into this situation to expose the issues at hand. She did it to see the point of view of a patient and to get the best possible story. With getting this perspective and the angle of the patient’s side, this story that she wrote had a huge impact with helping the asylum shut down for all the mistreatment of patients.  

 “The inevitable hour: A history of caring for dying patients in America,” by Emily Abel describes the health care in America during the 1800’s and what it is like to die in a hospital. Additionally, she explains the conditions and the care of patients in Blackwell Asylum, and how ill patients were coming from Bellevue Hospital and put on boats to go to Blackwell’s Island. Though it is only a short ride across the East River of New York City, the patients didn’t live their lives much longer than the boat ride. Many died due to no medical attention at all. Abel’s purpose was to express how dying in a hospital or asylum was a profoundly dehumanizing experience. She describes how dying in a asylum is inhuman because it is a place to get better, and when the patients would just die, it was unfair to their souls that they didn’t get the help they needed. Due to Blackwell Island not giving much attention to their patients, many would die in the hospital, which Abel thought was morally wrong. Then after many years of adjusting the care of patients, many technological improvements, Social Security Act, and Medicare fixed the problems being done in the asylums. The article was used to show the public the wrong doings of the patients. This exposure expressed how the treatments of the patients were not professional, and needed to be shut down. Overall, the goals of better asylums and more medical help to the patients is what Nellie Bly wrote to expose to the world, just like Abel would have thought.

“The inevitable hour: A history of caring for dying patients in America” expressed what the conditions were like for the people who lived in Blackwell Asylum in the 1800’s. Abel was able to express to society that the doctors were ineffective in the Blackwell Asylum, and the patients needed better care. Even though Bly had to live there for 10 days, the articles that she published expose the wrongdoings of the asylum and, luckily, the government took notice. After reading Bly’s story, many of the doctors gave apologies and excuses as to what they did, but the government provided $1,000,000 more towards the benefits for asylums. This article describes the reasoning of Bly’s goal to show the public what it is like to live in the Blackwell Asylum due to the inhuman way of treatments of the doctors to the patients. It was important to know that the conditions that she had to suffer through were similar to the conditions of those who spent their whole lives there. The asylum was in desperate need of change, and Bly was able to communicate her message about what was wrong in the powerful perspective of a patient.

Overall, the many articles by the press were able to fully expose the wrong doing of patients in the Blackwell Asylum. Not only was Bly’s story a key factor into getting the asylum shut down, but also it rewarded the mentally ill fund another $1,000,000. Throughout the 1800’s, the press was seen as a policing body that acknowledges the mistreatment of the patients and would report it to the public. By the press exposing the cruel treatment of patients, the publications caused the government to shut down the Blackwell Asylum, and increase funding for mental health agencies.


