Peter Bryce, MD, 1834-1892

P. Bryce.jpg

Title

Peter Bryce, MD, 1834-1892

Subject

Bryce, Peter, 1834-1892
Bryce Hospital --Tuscaloosa (AL)

Description

Dr. Peter Bryce was superintendent of the Alabama Insane Hospital at Tuscaloosa (later to be named Bryce Hospital) for 31 years, beginning in 1860.

Bryce was born in 1834 in Columbia, South Carolina. At the age of 17 he entered the South Carolina Military Academy (the Citadel) at Charleston, graduating in 1855 with honors. For two years he read medicine with Dr. Samuel Fair and then entered the Medical Department of the University of New York. In 1860, Bryce was elected superintendent of the Insane Hospital that was under construction in Tuscaloosa. Bryce won national recognition by his humane methods of treating the mentally ill. He abolished the practice of using handcuffs and strait jackets to restrain patients.

Bryce married Ellen Clarkson from South Carolina in 1860. He was 26; she was 19. They came immediately to Tuscaloosa.

The Bryces lived in an apartment in the administration building of the hospital. They had no children of their own but raised the three children of Ellen Bryce's brother when his wife died.

Dr Bryce died in 1892 from Bright's Disease; Ellen Bryce lived another 37 years; she died in 1929.

Source

Beverly Phifer

Contributor

Betty Slowe (Description)

Type

Painting

Identifier

1242

Coverage

Tuscaloosa (AL)

Original Format

Painting