The Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809–1883) in the mid-19th century. The asylums built in the Kirkbride design, often referred to as Kirkbride Buildings, were constructed during the mid-to-late-19th century in the United States.
An 1848 lithograph of the Kirkbride design of Trenton State Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey
The Traverse City State Hospital in Michigan, in operation from 1881 to 1989, is an example of a Kirkbride building
Thomas Story Kirkbride, creator of the Kirkbride Plan
The floor plan for the Kirkbride design from an 1854 lithograph
The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital.
Social alienation was one of the main themes in Francisco Goya's masterpieces, such as The Madhouse (above).
Eastern State Hospital was the first psychiatric institution to be founded in the United States.
Dr. Philippe Pinel at the Salpêtrière, 1795 by Tony Robert-Fleury. Pinel ordering the removal of chains from patients at the Paris asylum for insane women.
The joint counties' lunatic asylum, erected at Abergavenny, 1850
