By Journey Moore-Prewitt
Eliza McDermot was an Irish woman from New York who was described as being attracted to “the love of dress & wicked amusement.” For women of the time, this attraction was criminalized, as it went against the gender roles so heavily enforced at the time. Instead of relying on men or being textile workers (what was expected of them), women like Eliza McDermot were self-reliant, with autonomy and control over their own hobbies, money, and time. Because of this, Eliza McDermot was pulled through a series of institutions designed to reform her so she can live the expected life of a woman living during the mid 19th century.
Eliza McDermot’s love for nightlife and roaming the streets of Philadelphia ultimately led her to a prostitution home until she was found by her brother and sent to the Magdalen in New York and eventually moved to the Magdalen in Philadelphia. [1]
Magdalens in both New York and Philadelphia were institutions tasked with reforming women, specifically prostitutes, who had strayed from the moral life expected of women in the 19th century. The Magdalen Societies attempted to reform these women through religious exposure, making them participate frequently in bible study and worship in an effort to return them to a good and virtuous life. Once their time in the Magdalen was completed, the women were expected to be able to lead a more righteous life as textile workers or proper wives/mothers. Magdalen societies were often very strict in their reforming regimens, and women were often surrounded by Catholic texts and worshippers for most, if not all, of the time they spent in the Magdalen. [2]
Magdalens were often not very successful in rehabilitation, and Eliza McDermot was no exception. McDermot’s time in the Magdalen was incomplete and ineffective, and she left the Magdalen in Philadelphia due to a dispute with another inmate.
McDermot then roamed the streets of Philadelphia and was imprisoned in Moyamensing for 2 weeks. [3]
Now an ACME Grocery Store, Moyamensing was once the place of confinement for who is widely considered the United States’ first serial killer. Moyamensing was heavily inspired by Eastern State Penitentiary, the first state prison. The architecture of Moyamensing was specifically designed to intimidate both new inmates and onlooking citizens. It’s menacing appearance was fit for the violent inmates that would come to spend time in the prison, including Al Capone and the nations first serial killer, H. H. Holmes. Moyamensing was also the location for the state’s last public judicial execution by hanging, and soon after the prison itself was demolished, only to become a popular grocery store just a decade later. [4]
McDermot was likely imprisoned for stealing from a wealthy man, prostitution, or publicly drinking, as these were the most common offenses for which women during the 19th century were imprisoned. Prisons were designed to incarcerate those who inconvenience the American elite, most often white rich men; violence or theft against other women was often not criminalized and sentences were more determined by who the victim of the crime was, instead of the act itself. [5]
After 2 weeks of confinement, McDermot was released from Moyamensing, and brought to the Rosine Association.
The Rosine Association was a house founded by Quaker woman Mira Sharpless Townsend in 1847 to help troublesome young women who struggled with manipulation, drug and alcohol use, sex work, and other activities that were not deemed fit for the life of women of the time. Lawbreaking women were often sent to the house by family, friends, themselves, or even strangers in order to be reformed. The Rosine Association focused on teaching these women trade skills so they could economically support themselves once they left without having to depend on illegal activities. Unlike Moyamensing and the Magdalens, the Rosine Association gave the young women free time, focusing more on educational training rather than religious and isolating forms of discipline. Townsend kept casebooks which she filled with information on each woman that came through the house, which is how we know the story of Eliza McDermot, and many other women of the time. Entries for each woman include family history, details on her life, how she was brought to the Rosine Association, and her situation at the time of the entry. Often, these casefiles (and others detailing their not-so-legal lives and hobbies) are the only written evidence of these womens’ lives. [6]
Table of Content of a Rosine Association casebook kept by Mira Townsend. http://inherownright.org/records/oai-digitalcollections-tricolib-brynmawr-edu-sc_152356
After ten days, the Rosine Association decided that their ways of helping these women would not work with McDermot, and she was taken to a physician to be put under medical care. [7]
Most people who suffered from mental illnesses at the time stayed home with their family under careful watch of family members and traveling doctors. However, if they were judged to be too disruptive or violent, they were sent to mental institutions, or to be under the care of mental health professionals. During the 19th century, treatment of psychiatric patients shifted to reflect European strategies of psychiatric care. This new treatment depended on kindness, where the mentally ill patient would live comfortably until they recovered. Mental health institutions relied on quiet, peaceful living arrangements, which allowed them to focus solely on the mental health of the patients. Patients received rewards for good behavior, and only received gentle consequences. But these health care practices were limited to wealthy families and patients, until the mid-19th century when it was expanded to include more working class individuals seeking care. [8]
When religious exposure in the Magdalens, confinement and reform in Moyamensing, and education in the Rosine Association failed, the only possible answer was that McDermot was bordering insanity and must be sent for medical care. Religion, confinement, and textile training were the only types of reform that reformers knew and counted on to treat sane women, so when these didn’t work, they concluded that the issue lay with McDermot, rather than their own tactics.
McDermot may not have been seeking reform in the first place, but was placed in these institutions by family. Perhaps her lack of desire to be reformed is what frustrated the Rosine Association, resulting in her being placed into medical care. The only crime she commited (that was documented) was sex work, which did not fit into the moral lifestyle of 19th century women, and as a result she was relocated to various institutions in an attempt to fix her until ultimately she was sent off to a medical physician. Though mental institutions during the time were meant to be very peaceful and serene, McDermot was obviously attracted to a more vibrant and active urban setting, which makes me think that a quiet, almost lonely mental institution is not where she would like to have ended up. McDermot, like many other women of the time, failed to conform to the typical and expected lifestyle. Because of this, she lost much of her agency, and her life, home, and everyday activities were decided by those running these institutions. Women of the 19th century, like McDermot were under constant surveillance, and when they showed that their ideal lifestyle did not align with the lifestyle that the elite had deemed proper, these institutions stepped in, and they were forced to give up autonomy.
- Rosine Association Casebooks.
- Magdalen Society.
- Rosine Association Casebooks.
- Then And Now: 11th & East Passyunk Avenue.
- Liberty’s Prisoners.
- Rosine Association Casebooks.
- Ibid.
- History of Psychiatric Hospitals.
Bibliography:
Conn, Marie. “Magdalen Society,” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.” https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/magdalen-society/ (accessed February 24, 2022).
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. n.d. Rosine Association Casebook. http://inherownright.org/records/oai-digitalcollections-tricolib-brynmawr-edu-sc_152356.
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Rosine Transcript 010, Rosine Association Casebooks, Mira Sharpless Townsend Papers. Philadelphia, PA. https://github.com/swat-ds/datasets/blob/main/rosine/rosine-transcripts/rosine_entry_135.txt.
Manion, Jen. Liberty’s Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.
Patricia D’Antonio. History of Psychiatric Hospitals. Penn Nursing. https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/nurses-institutions-caring/history-of-psychiatric-hospitals/
Rogers, Jennifer. 2015. Then and Now: 11th & East Passyunk Avenue. Hidden City Philla. July 15, 2015. https://hiddencityphila.org/2015/07/then-and-now-11th-passyunk-avenue/.