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UNC School of Medicine

UNC Program in History and Mental Illness

CHW team members Sarah Almond and Lucas Kelley photographing Dix Hospital records in the State Archives of N.C. search room, 2019

Program Mission: Bridging the gap between archival science, AI-driven data management, and clinical psychiatry, our mission is to uncover the biological and social realities of mental illness through the lived experiences of North Carolinians over the past 180 years. 

Archive to Bedside

Our “Archive to Bedside” philosophy radically accelerates the process by which archival discoveries inform clinical practice, research, training, and continuing education.  By digitizing unstructured historical narratives, we transform legacy text into actionable data, providing clinicians with the phenotypic granularity required to understand the enduring biological signals of human suffering.  By automating the heavy lifting of data extraction, we allow researchers to focus on the synthesis of these findings with modern disease frameworks.
The PHMI builds on the “Asylum in the Archives” initiative undertaken by the UNC Community Histories Workshop (2017-2025). It transformed mountains of  unstructured historical text into a structured, searchable clinical resource: more than 15,000 admission ledger entries, 3000 general casebooks, 200 medical staff interviews, and approximately 50,000 involuntary commitment forms.  These records capture the immediate physical and psychological state of the patient—the “semiotics of intake.”  Admission ledgers also follow each patient to the moment of their leaving the institution through discharge, transfer, elopement or death in care.
We do not merely preserve paper; we treat the archive as a high-throughput data stream for identifying longitudinal disease patterns.

Our Goals

  • Develop a hub for cutting-edge interdisciplinary, collaborative historical research into mental illness, with a focus on the experience of North Carolinians
  • Develop research models for the quantitative and qualitative analysis of our growing internationally significant archive of public records pertaining to the history of mental illness
  • Build infrastructure, tools, and work processes that allow us to collaborate more effectively and work more efficiently
  • Serve as a vehicle for a sustainable historically-focused research track for selected psychiatry residents
  • Identify, digitize, and transcribe historical admission ledgers for Broughton Hospital (Morganton, NC), creating a relational database for all commitment records in NC between 1856-1925
  • Radically (and measurably) accelerate the translation of archival discoveries into learning opportunities that will enhance the training of the next generation of mental health professionals

Background

This program is catalyzed by the “Asylum in the Archives” initiative of the Community Histories Workshop, (2017– Robert Allen, PI). The initiative’s core team, including Sarah Almond, Cris McFarland, Nate Nihart, Emma Stout, Leah Tams, and Abby Wooten, represent more than 20 years of experience working with archival records reflecting the history of psychiatry, insanity, and involuntary commitment in North Carolina. They bring backgrounds in archiving and data management, digital humanities, digital history, public history, and communication studies.

Accomplishments to date

CHW team members Emma Stout and Nate Nihart scanning admission ledgers in the State Archives of N.C. search room, 2022
  • Digitization, transcription, curation of admission ledger records for the first 7,500 patients at the North Carolina Hospital for the Insane (Dix Hospital) between 1856 and 1922
  • Digitization, transcription, and curation of admission ledger records for the first 8000 patients at the North Carolina Hospital for the Colored Insane (Cherry Hospital) between 1880 and 1922
  • Digitization of 5000 Dix Hospital general case book records (1887-1922)
  • Digitization of medical staff interviews with recently admitted patients (1916-1918)
  • Incorporation of Dix and Cherry records into a relational database
  • Adaptation of Transkribus, AI-powered handwriting recognition platform, for use with historical medical records
  • Digitization and initial curation of microfilmed “lunacy commission” (involuntary commitment) papers for individuals declared insane in NC between 1899-1966: approximately 250 reels of 35mm microfilm, each containing 250-300 record images

Historically Focused Resident Research Track

With Professor Allen as research mentor and Dr. Bradley Gaynes as faculty advisor, selected psychiatry residents (to date: Dr. Philip Feibusch, Dr. Jack McKenzie, and Dr. Olivia Weiner) explore the materials and methods of digitally-inflected research as applied the history of mental illness, especially as it was experienced by North Carolinians.

Current Research Emphases & Collaborations

  • The Genomic Architecture of Historical Psychiatry: We are applying cutting-edge genomic research on psychiatric diagnosis to  retrospectively map syndromes such as schizophrenia, manic depression, catatonia and postpartum psychosis, recognizing them not as arbitrary diagnostic categories, but as distinct expressions of shared transdiagnostic risk.
Across our work we are field-testing NotebookLM as a multi-dimensional AI solution.
Donate Now

Donations will aid resident participation in the project.

About Us

Gary Gala

Gary Gala, MD, FACS

Co-Director, UNC Program in History and Mental Illness
Associate Professor
Senior Advisor to the Chair
Co-Director, UNC Psychiatry Philosophy and Mental Health Program

After completing training in General Surgery, he practiced in rural North Carolina for a number of years. He subsequently completed a General Psychiatry Residency at UNC and joined the faculty in 2006.

 

 

Robert C. Allen, PhD

Co-Director, UNC Program in History and Mental Illness
Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry
Research Professor of American Studies
James Logan Godfrey Distinguished Professor Emeritus of American Studies

Robert C. (Bobby) Allen has been at UNC for 47 years. His academic background is in the social and cultural history of the American South, particularly North Carolina, and has authored or edited nine academic books. Since 2008 he has focused on the application of digital technologies to history and the humanities, having been awarded the Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History by the American Historical Association (2011) and the inaugural Harvey Award to Advance Institutional Priorities at UNC. He was founder and director of the UNC Digital Innovation Lab (2011-16), co-PI (with Dean Terry Rhodes) of the Carolina Digital Humanities Initiative (2012-2016), and co-director of the Community Histories Workshop (2016–). He served as associate dean for honors from 1987-1999. His teaching spans first-year honors seminars to graduate research practicums.  In 2011 he received the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.  He has held research fellowships from the National Humanities Center, National Endowment for the Humanities, and American Council of Learned Societies.  In 2024 he was elected to membership in the North Caroliniana Society.

Dr. Brandon Goodman

PHMI Research Strategist & Clinical Education Architect, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

N.D. Nihart (MS SILS)

PHMI Archivist & Technologist, adjunct instructor of Psychiatry.