Phebe Stearns Mirick Portrait

Mirick (1810-1877) and her husband John served as the female and male supervisors at the State Lunatic Hospital on Summer Street from approximately 1838 to 1855. Opened in 1833, the hospital was considered in vanguard of sympathetic care for the mentally ill. This portrait, commissioned in Mirick’s honor by certain patients and attendants “at an expense of sixty dollars,” hung in the hospital for many years. It was hoped that those who came after her would be stimulated, by her example, “to a more disinterested performance of their duties.”