In the late 1800s to early 1900s, women were being placed in mental institutions for all sorts of reasons, including many that did not require psychiatric health.

Instead, women who were lacking many rights were

institutionalized because they were behaving in ways that men did not agree

with. Some were committed for adultery, sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of their lives because they took a lover who was not their husband.

Others were committed when their husbands found a new younger woman.

Some were committed for things like epilepsy, irregular menstruation,

sexual expression being too ambitious, religious enthusiasm, and more.

Diagnose symptoms that allowed a woman to be admitted into an asylum were things like

imaginary female trouble, immoral life, laziness, fits, novel reading, bad company, or hysteria.

In 1887, a woman, despite the rumors

of the horrible living conditions for women,

went undercover to investigate the life of a woman committed to an asylum.

For ten days she endured all that an asylum was as a patient herself.

When she re-emerged, she told a story that would change mental institutions forever.

Welcome to National Park After Dark. you're going to do you. Is this one of your freebies?

I tried really hard to link this to a national park,

but this is probably the loosely, the most loosely related to a

national park story I've ever done. So I guess I'll let ever decide if this is my

freebie. I did this a little bit different because instead of

taking us to a national park site I'm going to be telling a story of a woman who is

recognized by the National Park Service. Okay well I mean is her story on the National Park site in anyway? Yes. Okay, then it counts, I think. I mean, we'll let the people decide, but I feel like if she is recognized by the Park Service then I mean even based on the

introduction I feel like she deserves an entire episode whether or not it has any

...