The Best Specimen of a Tyrant: The Ambitious Dr. Abraham Van Norstrand and the Wisconsin Insane Hospital

During the Civil War, Dr. Abraham Van Norstrand organized and ran one of the army's biggest hospitals but resigned when dark rumors surfaced about him. Back home in Wisconsin, he accepted with mixed feelings the one prestigious position available to him: superintendent of the state's first hospital for the insane. The story of his rise and fall typifies the clash between the great expectations and hard choices that have bedeviled public mental hospitals from the beginning.