Utica State Hospital Patient Case Files

Chronological by admission date.

This accretion consists of 104 bound volumes of case files for patients admitted to Utica State Hospital from 1843 to 1898. Earlier records are completely narrative; later records include printed forms with information added.

Information on each patient includes a consecutive patient number; name; county and municipality of residence; indigent, pauper or private patient status; date admitted or readmitted; marital status; number of children; occupation; patient history (including supposed cause of mental illness and duration of symptoms); heredity (mentally ill relatives); bodily health; medication given; floor assigned to; notes on excitable, violent, or filthy behavior; habits; appetite; sleeping habits; weight gain and loss; visits by relatives; and periodic updates on condition.

Photographs of patients are included beginning about 1887, and are more frequently included in following years. Other documents frequently enclosed or tipped into the case records include abstracts of commitment orders and other legal documents; correspondence to and from patients; newspaper clippings; and case histories given by friends, relatives, or officials escorting the patient to the hospital.

Each volume contains an alphabetical name index.

Volume list showing patient number, gender, and admission date is available at the repository.

These records were transferred to the State Archives from the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center on September 26, 1996.

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 of Mental Health.