Weston State Hospital 1970: An Anthology Of Departures (Chronicles of Departure: The Weston State Hospital Series)($17.99Value)

Description

Weston State Hospital 1970: An Anthology of Departures continues 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 brings together the death certificates of those who died there in 1970, placing them in one accessible work for descendants, genealogists, historians, researchers, and anyone trying to understand the institution’s human history through the records that remain. This is not a book of folklore, legend, or entertainment. It is not a general history of the hospital. Its purpose is direct: to preserve the names, make the records easier to locate, 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 that considers 1970 against the hospital as it stood one hundred years earlier, in 1870. Plain-language definitions of recorded causes of death and a closing reflection on memory, silence, and the limits of the public record are also included. This is record work, and it is memory work. For 1970, it continues through the people named in the surviving record.