Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More

The New York State Legislature's Willard Act establishes an institution for poor people with mental health disabilities.

1865

The Story of Disability Justice
LLP
POV
DCRJ
MHP

Concerned with the treatment of people with mental, emotional, neurodivergent, developmental, and cognitive disabilities in the county poorhouses in the state of New York, Dr. Sylvester D. Willard writes an investigative report on the horrific conditions, describing people shackled to the floors and "walls in windowless basements and rooms." This leads the New York State Legislature to pass the Willard Act: "to authorize the establishment of a State asylum for the chronic insane and for the better care of the insane poor."