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Thomas Story Kirkbride was
born on July 31, 1809 into a
traditional Quaker family in
Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The first of seven children
he grew up in a stone farm
house on the family's 150
acre farm. The young Thomas
Kirkbride was unsuited to
follow in his father's
footsteps as a farmer as he
was naturally "delicate".
Medicine was considered an
appropriate profession for
the members of Thomas's
Orthodox Quaker group and
his father did all he could
to help Thomas into a life
of medicine. He began
studying medicine in 1831
under Dr. Nicholas
Belleville, of Trenton, New
Jersey. He then attended the
University of Pennsylvania
Medical School. When he
graduated in 1832 he was
offered and accepted a
position as the Resident
Physician at the Friend's
Asylum for the Insane at
Frankford. After one year he
was offered to take charge
of the institution but
Thomas declined and left the
Asylum as he intended to
become a surgeon. He then
accepted a residency at the
Pennsylvania Hospital. In
1835 he started a private
practice in Philadelphia
focusing mainly on surgery.
In the fall of 1840 Thomas
Kirkbride was offered the
position of
Physician-in-Chief and
Superintendent of the newly
established Pennsylvania
Hospital for the Insane
which was under construction
in West Philadelphia. He
accepted the position with
great reluctance as it meant
an end to his career as a
surgeon. He immediately
began the task of finishing
and furnishing the new
hospital. From his position
as superintendent of the
hospital he became a leader in
the movement of moral
treatment for the insane. He
also became a national
authority on hospital
construction. He was one of
the thirteen founding
members of the |
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Association of Medical
Superintendents of American
Institutions for the Insane
and later became it's
president from 1862 to 1870.
In 1854 he published a book
titled "On the
Construction, Organization,
and General Arrangements of
Hospitals for the Insane".
The influential book was a
guide for constructing and
operating hospitals for
the insane. Many hospitals
would be built following the
guidelines laid out by
Kirkbride in his book. These
buildings would eventually
be knows as "Kirkbride
Plan" buildings and the
building plan would flourish
until the turn of the
century.
Kirkbride died of pneumonia
on December 16, 1883 at his
home at the Pennsylvania
Hospital for the Insane. |
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How he influenced the
hospital: |
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In 1848 the commissioners of
the newly established
Pennsylvania State Lunatic
Hospital visited the
Pennsylvania Hospital for
the Insane and were given an
extended tour of the
hospital and grounds by
Thomas Kirkbride. That
evening when the
commissioners returned to
Harrisburg they adopted a
resolution that the new
hospital would be of
"Kirkbride design".
Kirkbride may also have had
a hand in appointing his
fellow Quaker, John Haviland
as the architect of the new
hospital and in 1851 he would
become one of the original
trustees. |
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