Census

Insane Hospitals 1904

Insane and Feeble-minded in Hospitals and Institutions, 1904

The image shows a table of mental hospitals in New Jersey with a total count of white patients and colored patients as well as the percentage of them that are native-born, foreign-born, or unknown.  This 1904 government data also shows public versus private facilities.  It is apparent from the data that very few individuals were able to afford or be admitted to private hospital facilities and virtually all of the patients that were admitted were had "native parentage."  For the Essex County Hospital in Newark, and the Essex County Branch Hospital, Overbrook the number of patients considered "Foreign Born" and those counted as "Native Born" were virtually the same.  Data collected about each patient's parentage also reveals how the makeup of Newark and Essex County's population and demographics were changing in the early 20th century.  A more detailed chart that includes data for other states can be accessed through the complete report.

Insane and Feeble-minded in Institutions 1910 By United States, Bureau of the Census

Census Data, 1910

Like the 1904 report, the 1910 data captures the number of "the insane and feeble-minded in institutions in New Jersey" in 1910. The data is also broken down into public and private institutions and includes all fifteen asylums in New Jersey.  By 1910, The Essex County Hospital for the Insane at Cedar Grove cared for 1,277 patients.

Insane and Feeble-minded in Hospitals and Institutions 1904, United States. Bureau of the Census, John Koren, William Alexander King

 

Occupation, 1904

"On the whole, the question of the relation of insanity to occupation in one that awaits systematic treatment... Yet such comparisons are necessary if the object be to establish that any one occupation more than another tends to produce a state of mental unbalance" (Bureau of the Census, Koren, King, 1904).   A majority of the women (68.3 %) were reported to have been domestic workers or servants.  However men were evenly diveded between laboring and servant, manufacturing and mechanical and agricultural, transportation, and other outdoor occupations.  This may reflect that more occupations were available to men at the time.