Weston State Hospital 1971: An Anthology Of Departures (Chronicles of Departure: The Weston State Hospital Series)($18.99Value)

Description

Weston State Hospital 1971: An Anthology of Departures is part of the Anthology of Departures series, a documentary project built from public death records connected to Weston State Hospital. Located in Weston, West Virginia, Weston State Hospital was the state’s first public psychiatric hospital and served generations of West Virginians before closing in 1994. This volume gathers the death certificates of those who died there in 1971 and places them in one accessible work for descendants, genealogists, historians, researchers, and anyone trying to gain a clearer view of the institution’s human history. This is not a book of folklore, legend, or entertainment. It is not a general history of the hospital. Its purpose is simpler and more direct: to preserve the names, make the records easier to find, and bring forward the final official traces of people who might otherwise remain buried in scattered public files. Each certificate is reproduced as a historical and genealogical record, with Social Security numbers and selected details redacted where appropriate. The volume also includes a brief historical introduction, plain-language definitions of recorded causes of death, and a closing reflection on memory, silence, and the limits of the public record. This is record work, and it is memory work. It continues here, through the people named in the surviving record of 1971.