Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital Oral History Project
Additional historical information is included in the website, www.greystoneoralhistory. The FB Adminstrator Does Not Have Information Re.
The Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital (1876-2008) Oral History Project offers a unique opportunity to hear the voices of the original Greystone Hospital community. Individual Patients and Employees. Please contact the North History Center on Genealogy instead. Check out these related pages:
The Greystone Oral History Project Director interviewed Jahanara, Dylan's high school girlfriend at her Hog Farm Commune in Berkeley, CA. Dylan asked Jahanara to accompany him on a visit to Woody, seemingly to prove to his Minnesota friends that he REALLY did know Woody Gutherie. Jahanara has noted that "meeting Woody was the greatest event of my life," which is a lot to say from someone who personally knew Dylan and later married Wavy Gravy.
01/27/2025
Robert Kirkbride, PhD is the Project Advisor for the Greystone Hospital Oral History Project, and serves as a professor of architecture and product design at Parsons School of Design. He is also the Spokesperson for PreservationWorks (also featured in this FB).
Dr. Kirkbride is the author of the article "Phantoms of the Kirkbride Hospitals." Designed as dignified places for healing, the psychiatric hospitals promoted by Thomas Story Kirkbride and Dorothea Dix were quickly overcrowded and underfunded--a failure that haunts us today.
From 22-24 years old, Leigh was a patient in Greystone. His career as an artist and professional photographer, with a special focus on New Haven, CT has blossomed.
You are invited to view these stained glass windows that were anonymously donated to the Morris County Historical Society. These windows were located in Greystone's Chapel, a calming and aesthetically pleasing oasis for both patients and staff.
They are on permanent display in the Crane Family's art gallery within the Acorn Hal Museum.
Many thanks are given to Amy Curry, Executive Director, and her staff at MCHS, who have been supportive of the Greystone Oral History Project.
02/29/2024
1958 Video of Psychiatric Nursing at Greystone Hospital
The concept of psychiatric nursing was introduced by Rutgers Professor Hildegard Peplau. (Detailed information about Ms. Peplau is posted elsewhere in this FB page.) The initial training with nursing students was conducted at Greystone Hospital in the mid 1950s and was documented in the video below. Psychiatric nursing leaned heavily on Carl Rogers' concept of "unconditional positive regard" for a patient. It also encouraged clinical staff to be aware of their own feelings while interacting with patients. Sometimes, sitting with someone in a comfortable silence was valuable for both the patient and healthcare provider.
PreservationWorks is a 501(c) 3 non profit organization/website well worth checking out. This group was integrally involved in the effort to prevent the demolition of Greystone's Main Building.
Its current mission is "advocating for the preservation and adaptive reuse of Kirkbride Asylums. We support local, grassroots efforts as well as provide education on the history of these unique buildings and how they affected their local communities, their patients, architecture, and the state of mental healthcare."
Last week we highlighted a song, "Old Man Trump," by former Greystone patient Woody Guthrie. Woody also had the last word in his song "This Land Was Made For You and Me." The last 3 verses are rarely sung, but Peter Seeger, Bruce Springsteen, and Obama decided it was a good idea to sing at Obama's 2009 inauguration.
Verses 5-7:
As I went walking I saw a sign there,
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing.
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
The video:
Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen perform This Land is Your Land live at "We are one" Obama InaugurationCopyright: HBO
02/08/2024
Woody Guthrie, Former Greystone Patient, Had No Good Memories of Fred Trump.
"Old Man Trump"Words: Woody GuthrieMusic: Ryan HarveyFeaturing Ani DiFranco and Tom Morellohttp://www.ryanharveymusic.comRecorded by Carl Restivo and Mike Na...
07/18/2023
In honor of our loved ones . . .
Even though we cannot provide information about specific individuals, we'd like to offer you an opportunity to leave a message about or to a loved one who may have been a patient at Greystone. Comment on this post with your message; we'll keep this post pinned so everyone can find it.
Your message can be short, for example: "Love to my grandfather, whom I never knew but still think about." You can also write a longer message, perhaps including the details of what you know about your loved one, your thoughts about his/her hospitalization, or something you'd like to tell him/her. If you have an appropriate photo, you could include it as well.
02/16/2023
Woody Guthrie at Greystone interviews: Nora Guthrie, his daughter, has had 253,000 views. Arlo Guthrie, his son, has had 12,000 views on his more recently posted interview.
Elizabeth Packard was committed by her husband, from 1860-1863 to the Illinois State Asylum (a Kirkbride Plan psychiatric hospital, like Greystone). Ms. Packard, mother of 6, successfully obtained her release and spent the next 30 years fighting on behalf of womens' and mentally ill patients' rights. Her amazing story is a page turner and scored 4.6 stars on Amazon, with 2,600 reviews. In an email with Stephanie Kip, Kate Moore, the author of "The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear," noted similar themes between her book and the Greystone Hospital Oral History Project website. Ms. Moore is also the bestselling author of "The Radium Girls," another NJ based story, which was made into a movie.
12/05/2022
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887), primary mental health advocate for the establishment of Greystone and Trenton State Psychiatric Hospitals, is honored to be included in the 2022 New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Dorothea Dix: Driving Force Behind The Establishment of State Psychiatric Hospitals
Dorothea Dix (1802-1887) was a Civil War nurse who later played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals, nationwide, for the treatment of mental illness. Ms. Dix conducted on-site research and prepared lengthy reports for state legislatures. She traveled as a single woman, often under very difficult weather and transportation conditions, to remote locations.
In 1839-1840, the NJ Legislature compiled a report documenting the condition of the insane individuals in NJ, for the purpose of determining if a state psychiatric hospital was necessary. That report identified a statewide total of “252 insane males, 163 insane females, 93 male idiots, and 103 female idiots." However, this report and the mental health crisis were not a high priority
for NJ's legislature and they took no action.
Ms. Dix felt that the 1840 numbers of NJ's mentally ill citizens were underestimated and the number of mentally impaired people had noticeably grown since the 1840 report. To document the increased need for a second NJ psychiatric hospital, Ms. Dix visited jails, poor houses, and other municipal institutions in all of NJ’s counties.
Dorothea Dix prepared and presented her "Memorial Soliciting a State Hospital for the Insane. Submitted to the Legislature of NJ, January 23, 1845.“ This 46 page document can be found in the “Additional Information” section of www.greytoneoralhistory.com. It contains extensive details regarding numbers of NJ mentally ill individuals, the projected costs of treating patients, and a comparison with the success of various psychiatric hospitals within the United States, Canada, and France.
After reading her Memorial, Ms. Dix beseeched the legislators to take action when she stated, "Citizens of New Jersey, have you human feelings, and can you delay this work which is solicited for the benefit of those who are, in the providence of God, cast on your care? Who are emphatically your wards, the wards of the state, for whose condition hereafter you are certainly accountable—insomuch as you are largely able to provide such a refuge for the unfriended and asylum for the diseased, as their forlorn condition requires?" This time, Ms. Dix’s urgent plea was heard and NJ’s legislature began planning for a second psychiatric hospital, i.e. Greystone.
Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital Oral History Project posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
The mission of the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital (1876-2008) Oral History Project is to preserve the memories of individuals connected to the original Greystone Hospital and make them readily accessible to the public.
This project is unique in many ways. First and foremost, it provides a venue to hear the actual voices of living people within the Greystone community. Interview listeners will gain a personalized knowledge of what Greystone was really like from the perspective of former employees, family members, patients, patient advocates, and people who grew up at Greystone.
Additional interviews will explore Greystone’s unique role in New Jersey and national mental health care and architectural history. Interviewees provide their expertise about such notable historical events and/or individuals as:
Dorothea Dix (America’s first mental health care advocate) who lobbied the NJ Legislature to build Greystone
WWII Conscientious Objectors whose alternative service at Greystone and other hospitals resulted in a Life Magazine expose of psychiatric hospitals
One of the most comprehensive national research projects on the efficacy of lobotomies Columbia University’s renown research on Greystone patients who had received lobotomies.
Greystone serving as a training site of the nation’s first Master’s degree in Psychiatric Nursing
Patients Woody Guthrie (folk singer), Naomi Ginsberg (mother of poet, Allen Ginsberg), and Enoch Bolles (pin up illustrator) who received treatment at Greystone
Doe v. Klein, the class action patient lawsuit, which resulted in a 30 year state monitoring of Greystone.
Greystone’s architecture being one of the earliest and largest Kirkbride Plan buildings, the spirited Preserve Greystone advocacy efforts to save it, and the significance of Greystone’s demolition for other closed, historically important institutions.
The project also archives materials that supplement interviews in the website’s “Additional Information” section. The items include: vintage and contemporary photographs, videos, a power point presentation, newspaper, magazine and scholarly articles, art work and prose by former patients, and Greystone related applications to governmental agencies.
It is hoped that these oral histories will promote the importance of enhanced mental health services, the safekeeping of priceless historical architecture and the prominent role New Jersey has played in mental health care.
This oral history project is self-funded and operates independently of other organizations. Written interview transcripts are archived in the North Jersey History and Genealogy Center of the Morristown (NJ) Library. The views expressed in this project are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of the project management. This project does not own or include any medical records of patients from Greystone.
