Mississippi Hospital Centennial Program (1955)

The Mississippi State Hospital located in Whitfield, Mississippi, is a psychiatric hospital that has been open since 1855. This hospital includes, "Adult Acute and Continued Treatment Psychiatric, Forensic, Adolescent Psychiatric and Substance Use treatment services, and Adult Substance Use treatment services," (Mississippi State Hospital). On November 17, 1955, Murrah High School in Jackson, Mississippi, held a centennial program commemorating the evolution of the Whitfield State Hospital. This program, sponsored by the Hinds County Association for Mental Health and the Mississippi State Hospital, highlights what happened at the ceremony while also relaying the history of Whitfield State Hospital. It outlined the events for the night and who hosted them: Mrs. Harry G. Newman, President of the Hinds County Association, presided over the Centennial Program; Miss Gerris Cotter presented the program; and Dr. E.S. Wallace directed the "Historical Pageant."

The first page of the program opens to reveal to a character list indicating there was a reenactment of how Whitfield came to be. The script was written by Mrs. E. G. Henne, and it was adapted from "Synoptical History of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum" by William M. Compton, Medical Superintendent in December of 1870. Some of the leading characters were Dr. William S. Langley played by Thomas L. Spengler Jr.,  and Dorothea Lynde Dix was played by Mrs. Lucien Hodges. Dr. William S. Langley was the founder and first superintendent of Whitfield. Dorothy Dix was originally a Boston school teacher who ended up as a volunteer teaching Sunday school to inmates of the East Cambridge jail in Massachusetts. She visited Whitfield in 1850 (at the time named the State Lunatic Asylum) and found the conditions to be inadequate. She presented a memorial to the legislature, and the conditions were improved. In 1858, when the asylum needed to be enlarged, she again presented a memorial to the legislature.

She gave 80 books to the State Lunatic Asylum, and to commemorate this donation, the Centennial Program Hinds Association donated 80 books 100 years later in her honor to Whitfield.

The rest of the program relayed the history of the State Hospital. The State Lunatic Asylum was completed on January 8, 1855. In 1900, the name was changed to Mississippi State Insane Hospital. In 1926 it was changed to Mississippi State Hospital. On March 4, 1935, the patients were moved to the Mississippi State Hospital, Whitfield, Mississippi.

To view this item, visit Special Collections in room 305 in McCain Library and Archives. If you have any questions about the program, contact Jennifer Brannock at Jennifer.Brannock@usm.edu.

Text by Aurora Breland, Sophomore, Legal Studies – Pre-Law (major) and Public Health Policy & Administration (minor)

**Items of the Month featured in 2024-2006 will be the work of Southern Miss students who took HON 303, a seminar held in Fall 2024 focusing on archives and special collections