Sposini on Certifying Insanity in Ontario

Filippo Maria Sposini, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, has published Just the Basic Facts: The Certification of Insanity in the Era of the Form K in the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 75 (April 2020): 171–192: 

This paper investigates the certification of insanity through a standardized template called Form K which was used in Ontario between 1873 and 1883. My main thesis is that the introduction of the Form K had profound and long-lasting effects on the determination of insanity. In particular, it created a unique case in the history of certification, it grounded civil confinement on a strategy of consensus, and it informed mental health documentation for more than a century. As the result of a transnational mediation from Victorian England, the Form K prescribed an examination setting which involved a high number of participants, including three physicians and several witnesses. By comparing this case with other jurisdictions of the time, this paper shows how Ontario became a distinctive case worldwide. In order to get a closer look at this medico-legal procedure, I consider the archival records of the Toronto asylum and conclude that the certification of insanity relied on a strategy of consensus. While the Form K proved quite successful in preventing legal actions, it produced financial, logistic, and bureaucratic issues. The Form K was thus discontinued after a decade, yet its structure influenced Ontario’s mental health documentation throughout the twentieth century. This paper shows the relevance of the certification of insanity for transnational history and for understanding contemporary issues of involuntary confinement and stigma in mental health.

--Dan Ernst

Osgoode Society's "Evenings of Canadian Legal History"

The Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History has announced "An Evening of Canadian Legal History,” a monthly lecture series to be conducted on-line via Zoom at 5:30 pm on designated Wednesdays.

September 23
Professor Jim Walker, “Legacies: The Impact of Black Activism on the History of Rights in Canada”

October 21
Professor Nina Reid-Maroney, "Vigilance:  Black Activism and Chatham’s Demarest Rescue, 1858"

November 18
Anna Jarvis and Filippo Sposini Present their Research

--Dan Ernst

Anne Fleming: A Canadian Business Law Tribute

Anne Fleming was to present a paper based on her research on Birmingham, Alabama’s innovative bankruptcy court at 100 Years of Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law, a conference that was to be held last May and now is to be held next May.  The conference papers are to be published in a special volume of the Canadian Business Law Journal, edited by the two conference organizers, Thomas G.W. Telfer and Alfonso Nocilla.  The two have announced that they have decided to dedicate the volume to Anne Fleming and have added the following to its foreword.

We would like to acknowledge that one of our conference panelists, Professor Anne Fleming of Georgetown University Law Center, passed away earlier this year. Anne was scheduled to present "The Origins of the American Consumer Bankruptcy System" during our first panel on Historical Perspectives on Insolvency Law. At the time of her passing Anne was engaged in a new book project: Household Borrowing and Bankruptcy in Jim Crow America, 1920-1960. Her preliminary findings can be found on her website: The Bankruptcy Capital of the World: Debt Relief in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1930s.  We dedicate this special volume of the Canadian Business Law Journal to Anne Fleming.

--Dan Ernst

Farewell

This is a bittersweet day: I am saying goodbye to History in Photos. I've been at this for five years and have put a lot of time and effort into finding historical photos that - to me, and hopefully to you - are interesting, educational, and have something to say about the human condition. Other priorities are now calling, but it has been a vastly interesting - and occasionally obsessive - journey for me. I never did this for page views but I hope it has been interesting for you as well. 

I end, somewhat symbolically, with the final set of photos from the 1954 road trip taken by the four Canadian ladies.

Audrey James and Marg Thompson with a dog in the back 

of a truck, De Winton, Alberta, August 12, 1954

  

Helen Salkeld, Anna Brown, Audrey James, Rosemary Gilliat and the 

Thompson family stopping for lunch, Kananaskis, Alberta, August 15, 1954

 

Billy Thompson and Helen Salkeld, Kananaskis, Alberta, August 15, 1954

 

Anna Brown in the Rockies, Kananaskis Road, Alberta, August 15, 1954

 

Rain, Fraser Canyon, British Columbia, August 19, 1954

 

Helen Salkeld eating in her tent near Fraser River, British Columbia, August 19, 1954

 

Anna Brown and Rosemary Gilliat writing and reading by candlelight 

at a camp near Fraser River, British Columbia, August 19, 1954

 

Anna Brown eating by a tent at a camp site in Garibaldi 

Provincial Park, British Columbia, August 23, 1954

 

Pipe band playing on ferry near Bowen Island, 

Howe Sound, British Columbia, August 21, 1954

 

After the rain all belongings are spread out to dry in 

Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia, August 25, 1954

 

Helen Salkeld and Anna Brown erecting tents near 

Copper Mountain, British Columbia, August 27, 1954

 

Anna Brown and Rosemary Gilliat erecting a tent, 

possibly Belmont Lake, Ontario, September 5, 1954

 

 Source: BiblioArchives/LibraryArchives Canada

Prairie Towns

Family in a carriage, Humboldt, Saskatchewan

  

 Freda and Edward, Hatton, Saskatchewan, September 1921

Hanley, Saskatchewan, May 31, 1910

 

Humboldt, Saskatchewan, July 12, 1918

 

Humboldt, Saskatchewan, October 1914

 

Watching baseball game, Humboldt, Saskatchewan, 1912

 

Langham, Saskatchewan, 1909

 

1st Avenue looking south, Nipawin, Saskatchewan

 

Cutting wheat on the Franklin Realty Company's farm, Nokomis, Saskatchewan

 

Fire at Nokomis, Saskatchewan, February 3, 1921

 

Nipawin, Saskatchewan, 1925

 

Nokomis, Saskatchewan, May 28, 1912

 

Prairie schooners, Nokomis, Saskatchewan

 

Source: Prairie Towns

Prairie Towns

Carnival, Leader, Saskatchewan, August 20, 1917

  

Derrick built by schoolboys, Lancer, Saskatchewan

 

Kaiser Wilhelm Ave., Langenberg, Saskatchewan

[pre-WW1, I'm guessing]

   

Lang, Saskatchewan

 

Lanigan Hotel, Lanigan, Saskatchewan

 

 Loverna, Saskatchewan

["field mice air conditioned the sod" :)]

  

Luseland, Saskatchewan

  

Lashburn Fair, Saskatchewan, 1911

 

Lashburn, Saskatchewan, 1908

 

Lashburn, Saskatchewan

 

Sir Wilfred Laurie visits Lashburn, Saskatchewan

[Prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911]

 

Source: Prairie Towns

Vintage Alberta

Eleven women in a play, Wetaskiwin, 1930

  

Helen McCalla with squash, August 29, 1915

 

Last Harvesters' Excusion Train

 

Making sheaves for harvest, Little Smoky, Alberta, 1946

 

McCalla family in skates on log in ravine near Edmonton, 1914

 

Woman with rifle, ca. 1915

 

Christmas at the Bamber home, December 1919

 

Christmas sleigh ride, Fort McMurray, 1926

 

Schofield family Christmas, Mountain Park, 1933

 

Source: Alberta Provincial Archives