Name/Title
Engraving Plate of Mills BuildingEntry/Object ID
2008.6.1Description
Engraving plate of the north facade of the Mills Building on the campus of the former South Carolina State Hospital. The image on the plate is nearly symmetrical: a large building with a pediment, six ionic columns, and five archways entering the lower floor is partially obscured by two large trees on either side. There appears to be a water feature in the foreground of the building. No staircase is present from this view. The plate is made of wood block with paper backing. The front of the plate is black in color from repeated ink use. Twenty (20) small metal nails are used to attach the top of plate to the wood back.Use
Plates such as this were used in intaglio printing by incising an inverse of the image to be printed into a thin metal (usually copper) sheet attached to a wooden block. Ink would be applied to the plate, and then the plate would be pressed onto paper either by hand or by printing press. The result is a reverse image of the engraving printed onto a page.Context
Construction of this building, designed by architect and then-South Carolina state engineer Robert Mills (1781-1855), began several month after the state General Assembly authorized the creation of the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum (later the South Carolina State Hospital) in December 1821. Its entablature, which reads "FOUNDED AD MDCCCXXII," indicates the year that the building's cornerstone was laid in a ceremony that included Mills, the asylum's commissioners, and freemasons from Columbia Lodge No. 39. Chapman Levy (1787-1849), the lodge’s Worshipful Master, placed the cornerstone. A lawyer, state senator, and brickyard owner, Levy was also a prominent member of the Jewish community.
In keeping with the “moral treatment movement,” which called for those living with mental illness to no longer be physically restrained or kept in total isolation, the asylum's building included south-facing patient rooms connected by a wide corridor that could be used for strolling during cold months. The roofs of both wings were also designed as promenades enclosed by parapet walls to keep the patients safe. Mills' design segregated male and female patients into separate wings, a treatment policy that would remain in place for the entirety of the campus’s history. The entire building was considered fireproof and heated by two furnaces in the basement with flues running up the wall.
Other design features reflected that this building functioned like a prison—and it essentially was, as most patients were committed “for their own safety” by family members and public officials. Patient rooms were referenced as cells, complete with hidden locks and iron bars that mimicked the window muttons designed to “secure them against any attempt to escape.” The four-acre campus, bounded by Elmwood, Bull, Calhoun, and Pickens, was also surrounded by a 10-foot-high brick wall.Dimensions
Height
1 inWidth
5-1/2 inLength
12-1/4 inRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Robert Mills