An early, imposing image of the Nevada Insane Asylum in Reno, presumably taken shortly after it opened near the end of 1881. Prior to construction, Nevada lacked facilities needed to treat those with mental health issues, and sent patients to Woodbridge in San Joaquin County and later to the Pacific Asylum in Stockton. The state asserted that the desert climate would be good for patients (who were referred to as “inmates”) and the facility was designed by Morrill J. Curtis, who later built the Goldfield hotel.

The facility was something of an attraction to local residents. When it opened, the Reno Journal Gazette reported “about half the town will be down to the asylum this morning to see the crazy folk come in.” The local community was given complete, unrestricted access to the facilities, allowing them to gawk with impunity. This policy remained until 1895, when the practice was stopped by the newly-appointed head of the hospital, Dr. Henry Bergstein, who also changed the name of the facility to “The Nevada Hospital for Mental Diseases.”

The photograph speaks to this pastime of the facility as a source of entertainment as the photograph was presumably created as a souvenir. It was published by the commercial artist Edward A. Allen, who also sold stationary, smokers articles and “toys and novelties of every description.”