Aerial view of St. Elizabeth's Hospital, once the government's "Hospital for the Insane" in Washington, D.C.

ID: 2869 ~ Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA ~ Creator: Carol M. Highsmith ~ Date: Between 1980 and 2006

This file appears in: Saint Elizabeths Hospital Historic District: Saint Elizabeths is one of the nation’s earliest and most significant institutions for the treatment of mental illness.

This file appears in: Saint Elizabeths Hospital Historic District: Saint Elizabeths is one of the nation’s earliest and most significant institutions for the treatment of mental illness.

Saint Elizabeths Hospital Historic District: Saint Elizabeths is one of the nation’s earliest and most significant institutions for the treatment of mental illness.

By The DC Historic Sites team

Established largely through the efforts of Dorothea Dix, the leading mental health reformer of the 19th century, Saint Elizabeths Hospital was chartered by Congress in 1852 as the Government Hospital…