{"id":149,"date":"2023-11-02T09:03:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T13:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/?p=149"},"modified":"2023-11-02T09:03:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T13:03:37","slug":"invisible-no-more-a-look-inside-the-mt-hope-cemetery-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/2023\/11\/02\/invisible-no-more-a-look-inside-the-mt-hope-cemetery-memorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Invisible No More: A Look Inside the Mt. Hope Cemetery Memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On October 23rd, 2023, a memorial honoring the unmarked<\/span>\u00a0graves in Mt.\u00a0Hope Cemetery was revealed.\u00a0 Spearheaded by St. John Fisher\u2019s Dr. Ryan <\/span>Thibodeau of the Psychology department, \u201cInvisible No More: Honoring the deceased buried in the public section of Mount Hope Cemetery\u201d honors those buried at Mt. Hope that had died at the Monroe County Almshouse, Monroe County Penitentiary, and Monroe County Insane Asylum (later Rochester State Hospital, currently Rochester Psychia<\/span>tric Center).\u00a0 Since this isn\u2019t the first time Dr. Thibodeau has brought this kind of history to our campus, I had the honor of sitting down and discussing his passion for bringing this to light.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Thibodeau\u2019s i<\/span>nterest in the history of mental illness, psychiatry, and social welfare started about 2017 when he toured the former Buffalo State Hospital.\u00a0 If you\u2019re familiar with the Buffalo area, you may know it now as the Richardson Olmsted Campus<\/a>.\u00a0 The Romanesque inspired building hosts many businesses including Richardson Hotel Buffalo.\u00a0 The tour provides insight on the history of the Buffalo State Hospital, what happened there, along with what they\u2019re doing for renovations.<\/p>\n

About a year a<\/span>nd a half ago, Dr. Thibodeau helped to bring \u201cThe Willard Suitcases\u201d exhibit to our art gallery which highlights those that stayed at the Willard Psychiatric Center in Ithaca.\u00a0 Both \u201cThe Willard Suitcases\u201d and \u201cInvisible No More\u201d share a common thread – local history.\u00a0 As he\u2019s learned more about the history of these local institutions, the more Dr. Thibodeau has wanted to share what he\u2019s learned.\u00a0 Since history is so vast, Dr. Thibodeau has kept his focus to the mid to late 19th century.\u00a0 It was during this period in time that the creation and expansion of public state hospitals became prevalent.<\/p>\n

Like we hear many similar discoveries around the country, the unmarked graves were discovered during a <\/span>construction project<\/span><\/a> in Highland Park back <\/span>\"\"in the 1980s.\u00a0 Dr. Thibodeau learned of these graves back in 2020 when WXXI published a story about the unmarked graves, along with a brief glimpse of the history behind the gravesite.\u00a0 He also revealed the inspiration behind the memorial came from a documentary he saw in 2020 centered on the cemeteries at the former Athens Lunatic Asylum in Ohio to help identify and recognize those buried in Athens.\u00a0 For those interested, they can check out the documentary on WOUB<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After a lengthy process, the project was approved.\u00a0 The memorial holds a<\/span>\u00a0great import<\/span>ance to Dr. Thibodeau as in some cases, the people buried in the public section have been invisible to the public eye for 150 years, and he is very pleased that the memorial finally pays tribute to those people.\u00a0 He is also excited about educating the public regarding this fascinating history of our city.<\/p>\n

As the unveiling approached on the 23rd, Dr. Thibodeau and the committee working on the project had hoped there would be a decent crowd attending this historic event.\u00a0 Thankfully, a crowd of around 100 people attended to witness, learn, and honor the deceased.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr. Thibodeau hopes \u201cInvisible No More\u201d not only educates the Rochester community about what happened regarding mental health during this time in history, but to provide a venue where the community can honor the dead.\u00a0 While most people who would have known those in the institution have passed, he would also love if their descendants are able to identify if their family member was among the forgotten in Mt. Hope.\u00a0 Dr. Thibodeau would also like for community members to think about the current challenges related to the social problems that caused people in history to open these institutions in\u00a0<\/span>\"\"the first place – mental illness, poverty, and crime. What about our current policies are working? What isn\u2019t working about them?\u00a0 The stigma around mental health has definitely decreased significantly since the mid 19th century, but what can we do to further drive it out of society?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Be sure to read more about the ceremony on <\/span>St. John Fisher\u2019s<\/span><\/a> website and on <\/span>WHEC<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 If you would like to visit the memorial in Mt. Hope Cemetery, a pin on Google Maps should be coming soon!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 23rd, 2023, a memorial honoring the unmarked\u00a0graves in Mt.\u00a0Hope Cemetery was revealed.\u00a0 Spearheaded by St. John Fisher\u2019s Dr. Ryan Thibodeau of the Psychology department, \u201cInvisible No More: Honoring the deceased buried in the public section of Mount Hope Cemetery\u201d honors those buried at Mt. Hope that had died at the Monroe County Almshouse, … Continue reading “Invisible No More: A Look Inside the Mt. Hope Cemetery Memorial”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162,"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.sjf.edu\/cangie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}