Visiting Committee Records

A subset of the Board, the Visiting Managers were responsible for visiting and inspecting Friends Asylum once a week and for inspecting the superintendent’s account book once a month. This series includes typed and handwritten reports, with names of the visitors, descriptions of the visit, and updates regarding the Asylum grounds, finances, and patients. The back of the Minutes and Register of the Committee of Admission also contains Visiting Committee minutes from 1839-1856, although those years are covered by their own volumes here as well. (Information from “A Mild and Appropriate System of Treatment”: Moral Treatment and the Curability of Mental Illness at Friends Asylum" by Abigail Corcoran)