Terminology/Search Terms:
- Key Terms: Hawaiʻi State Hospital, Territorial Hospital, Oahu Asylum, Oahu Insane Asylum
The Hawaiʻi State Hospital (then known as the "Territorial Hospital") opened in Kāneʻohe in 1930. Prior to the move, the "Oahu Asylum" (as it was called) was based in Honolulu and dates back to 1866. If you are searching for information prior to 1930, your best bet is to look through Hawaiʻi Kingdom Records at the Hawaiʻi State Archives.
Places and Resources to Conduct Your Research:
- Newspapers - Newspapers are a great source of information and a good starting point for research. With a Newspaper.com subscription (behind a paywall), you can easily search for English-language news regarding the State Hospital since the newspapers are OCR'ed (you can search for keywords within an article). If you do not have access to newspapers.com, you can also consult Chronicling America (no paywall, but clunky interface; OCR is mediocre). For Hawaiian-language newspaper sources, you can search the Nūpepa Collection via Papakilo (OCR is not reliable). Or you can do research the time-tested way at either the Hawai'i State Public Library (downtown location) or Hamilton Library's microfilm and microfiche collections to review the newspapers. You can consult the Newspaper index (English-language resources) on the topic of the hospital.
- Hawaiʻi State Archives - Historical records of the Department of Health (Kingdom, Provisional Government, and Territory) are located here, however there is still likely an embargo over some of the files from the 1930s due to various legal restrictions such as HIPAA. The reference archivists there are amazing and should be consulted.
- Hawaiʻi Department of Health - If you are interested in particular people that may have been admitted to the hospital, you might request documents from the Department of Health with permission from the family/family sign off.
- Hamilton Library - There may be resources of interest at Hamilton. You should remember to look up the Hospital by all names it went by (Oahu Insane Asylum, Oahu Asylum, Territorial Hospital, Hawaii State Hospital, etc):
- Psychology research reports (Hawaii State Hospital)
Windward Community College Library