Syracuse State School Daily Census and Activity Registers

Chronological.

The series consists of daily registers that record the population and activities of patients at the Syracuse State School (" S.S.S.") and its predecessors (the State Asylum for Idiots, Syracuse State Institution for Feeble-Minded Children, and Syracuse State School for Mental Defectives). Starting in 1883, the asylum purchased and remodeled farm buildings at which older students were placed to learn farming and to produce crops. By 1931 the Syracuse State School had 15 such "colonies" (eight junior boys' colonies, three senior boys' colonies, and four girls' colonies) and the work activities noted in these registers reflect that system.

The form of entries varies slightly over time, but volumes typically provide patient names under categories of "admissions," "discharges and deaths," and (sometimes) "transfers;" separate enumeration of boy and girl patients, and totals; the number of patient "pupils" (boys and girls in school, or absent because of sickness); and the number of patients "employed" and the nature of their work (e.g. "farm and garden," "stable," "kitchen," "shops," "bakery," " housework," "laundry," " knitting"). The earliest volumes list numbers of males and females, and numbers of those pupils, in columns, designated as "sick," "wet," and [suffering from] "fits."

B1674Series B1674, Population Census, 1925-1949, contains census information that post-dates some of these records.

Volume list is available at the repository.

Restricted in accordance with Mental Hygiene Law, Section 33.13, relating to confidentiality of clinical records. Access is permitted under certain conditions upon approval by the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.