Emily Graham's Death
Item
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Title
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Emily Graham's Death
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Description
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This newspaper article tells the story of Emily Graham, who was institutionalized in an asylum on Blackwell's Island after police officers arrested her on charges of drunkenness. Her husband managed to locate her, allowing her to stay in the asylum for treatment; but she quickly deteriorated from substandard, abusive medical care and eventually died from her wounds.
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Creator
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New York Times
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Date
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1879
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Type
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Newspaper
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Format
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PNG
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Language
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English
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Subject
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death, mental illness, asylum, drunkenness
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Temporal Coverage
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19th century
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Rights Holder
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New York Times
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Rights
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Public Domain
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transcription
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Dr. W. De F. Day:
Emily Graham was brought to her home from the Insane Asylum on Blackwell’s Island on the 24th inst., when I was first called to attend her. I found her extremely emaciated, her person very filthy, and her body covered in sores. Her relatives say she was “beaten, staved, and otherwise abused,” but, be this as it may, I must express the opinion that her condition indicated at least carelessness and neglect on the part of her attendants.
James M. Duncan, M.D.
A Times reporter visited the home of the Grahams. He found it in a garret at No. 164 Lewis-street. The room was clean, but poorly furnished. The dead woman’s body was extremely emaciated and was covered in putrid sores. The lobe of the right ear had a sore caused apparently by a bruise. ON the right shoulder was a deep sore, circular in shape, and about the size of a silver dollar. There were two deep, large, and gangrened bed-sores on the small of the back, the edges of which were ragged and blue-black. The upper surface of the right leg was covered with putrid sores, and there were several of the same kind scattered over the remainder of the body. Many of these looked like bed-sores, and none but the one of the right ear looked like contusions.
John Graham, the husband of the dead woman, gave the following story of the case: He is a boiler-maker, but no being able to find work at his trade, for some time past has been employed as an oiler on sea-going vessels. On Oct. 14 last he went with his wife to a grocery at Grand and Pitt streets. Mrs. Graham remained outside while he went into the store. When he emerged he found that his wife had mysteriously disappeared. He searched all the station-houses that night for her but could find nothing about her. Next day he learned that she had been found wandering around by an officer of the Eighteenth Precinct, who arraigned her in the Fifty-seventh-Street Police Court, before Justice BIxby, on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, and that the Justice had committed her to the Island for 30 days. He went there and saw her. He knew that she was of unsound mind, and when he saw that she was well cared for he left here there.
Graham Case