Memorial Wall Plaques Dedicated to Patient Labourers
These patient-built walls are a testament to the abilities of the people whose unpaid labour was central to the operation of asylums in the Province of Ontario during the 19th and 20th centuries. The asylum on Queen Street first opened in 1850 and was overcrowded within a few years. The initial idea of work as therapy gave way to the reality of work intended to save the provincial government money through unpaid patient labour. Men worked outdoors on construction, maintenance and farm work, including building and repairing many of the structures behind which they were confined, including the still-existing boundary walls on the south side of this property, built in 1860, and the east and west boundary walls built in 1888-89. Women worked primarily inside, doing the sewing, knitting and laundry for the asylum, while also working as domestic servants in both the nurses' and doctors' residences not far from this spot. Both men and women also worked in their own sex-segregated wards doing domestic chores such as cleaning, washing and scrubbing floors. Patients also worked in the male (west side) and female (east side) infirmaries, where they helped to care for those of their fellow patients who were sick and dying. Seen by many as the physical representation of prejudiced attitudes towards people with a psychiatric diagnosis, the walls which still stand today are historical monuments to the exploited labour of all psychiatric patients who lived, worked and died on these grounds since 1850.
Presented by the Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Friends of the CAMH Archives, and many other donors. Dedicated September 2010.
Learn more on a self-guided tour of eight more plaques, as indicated on the map, with an audio description at 416-535-8501, ext.1530
Plaque via Alan L. Brown's site Toronto Plaques. Full page here.