The Mississippi State Asylum (MSA), established in 1855, was the first such institution in but has been largely forgotten about since its closure in 1935. The cemetery associated with the facility, which is located on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus, was recently rediscovered with new construction. As part of the Asylum Hill project, the remains of seven of the 7000 burials along with their mortuary artifacts were analyzed and allowed these forgotten individuals to once again regain their voice and tell a portion of their life story through osteobiographies.
The sample, dating to 1855-1899, included five males and two females, with an average age range of 28.5-33.5 for males and 35-40 for females. Most appear to have been African American. Caries were the most common dental pathology seen, and almost half experienced LEH and abscesses as well. This is undoubtedly related to the corn and carbohydrate rich diet, which also introduced certain nutritional deficiencies. Porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, and tentatively diagnosed pellagra also afflicted those analyzed. There was a lack of trauma within this sample, despite previous reports in the MSA population. Entheseal markers were largely gracile, perhaps due to patients being too ill to work.
With the exception of life expectancy, these findings generally comport with what was seen in analyses of cemeteries at contemporaneous institutions as well in the general population of the time, suggesting there was generally good care for these individuals. Nevertheless, much else is left to be learned from those interred in the MSA cemetery, this is just the beginning.
","abstract_html":"<p>The Mississippi State Asylum (MSA), established in 1855, was the first such institution in but has been largely forgotten about since its closure in 1935. The cemetery associated with the facility, which is located on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus, was recently rediscovered with new construction. As part of the Asylum Hill project, the remains of seven of the 7000 burials along with their mortuary artifacts were analyzed and allowed these forgotten individuals to once again regain their voice and tell a portion of their life story through osteobiographies.</p> <p>The sample, dating to 1855-1899, included five males and two females, with an average age range of 28.5-33.5 for males and 35-40 for females. Most appear to have been African American. Caries were the most common dental pathology seen, and almost half experienced LEH and abscesses as well. This is undoubtedly related to the corn and carbohydrate rich diet, which also introduced certain nutritional deficiencies. Porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, and tentatively diagnosed pellagra also afflicted those analyzed. There was a lack of trauma within this sample, despite previous reports in the MSA population. Entheseal markers were largely gracile, perhaps due to patients being too ill to work.</p> <p>With the exception of life expectancy, these findings generally comport with what was seen in analyses of cemeteries at contemporaneous institutions as well in the general population of the time, suggesting there was generally good care for these individuals. Nevertheless, much else is left to be learned from those interred in the MSA cemetery, this is just the beginning.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Logan, Savannah V"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Marie Danforth","Sharon Young","Lida Gibson"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2025-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z","subjects":["bioarchaeology","anthropology","osteobiography","mississippi state asylum","archaeology","asylum hill project","Biological and Physical Anthropology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1144","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Marie Danforth","Sharon Young","Lida Gibson"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Logan, Savannah V"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2025-08-01T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["bioarchaeology","anthropology","osteobiography","mississippi state asylum","archaeology","asylum hill project","Biological and Physical Anthropology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1144"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The Mississippi State Asylum (MSA), established in 1855, was the first such institution in but has been largely forgotten about since its closure in 1935. The cemetery associated with the facility, which is located on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus, was recently rediscovered with new construction. As part of the Asylum Hill project, the remains of seven of the 7000 burials along with their mortuary artifacts were analyzed and allowed these forgotten individuals to once again regain their voice and tell a portion of their life story through osteobiographies.
The sample, dating to 1855-1899, included five males and two females, with an average age range of 28.5-33.5 for males and 35-40 for females. Most appear to have been African American. Caries were the most common dental pathology seen, and almost half experienced LEH and abscesses as well. This is undoubtedly related to the corn and carbohydrate rich diet, which also introduced certain nutritional deficiencies. Porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, and tentatively diagnosed pellagra also afflicted those analyzed. There was a lack of trauma within this sample, despite previous reports in the MSA population. Entheseal markers were largely gracile, perhaps due to patients being too ill to work.
With the exception of life expectancy, these findings generally comport with what was seen in analyses of cemeteries at contemporaneous institutions as well in the general population of the time, suggesting there was generally good care for these individuals. Nevertheless, much else is left to be learned from those interred in the MSA cemetery, this is just the beginning.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Inside the Walls of the Asylum: Exploring the Lives of Individuals in the Mississippi State Asylum (1855-1935)"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Marie Danforth","Sharon Young","Lida Gibson"],"dc:creator":["Logan, Savannah V"],"dc:date.available":["2025-08-01T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The Mississippi State Asylum (MSA), established in 1855, was the first such institution in but has been largely forgotten about since its closure in 1935. The cemetery associated with the facility, which is located on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus, was recently rediscovered with new construction. As part of the Asylum Hill project, the remains of seven of the 7000 burials along with their mortuary artifacts were analyzed and allowed these forgotten individuals to once again regain their voice and tell a portion of their life story through osteobiographies.
The sample, dating to 1855-1899, included five males and two females, with an average age range of 28.5-33.5 for males and 35-40 for females. Most appear to have been African American. Caries were the most common dental pathology seen, and almost half experienced LEH and abscesses as well. This is undoubtedly related to the corn and carbohydrate rich diet, which also introduced certain nutritional deficiencies. Porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, and tentatively diagnosed pellagra also afflicted those analyzed. There was a lack of trauma within this sample, despite previous reports in the MSA population. Entheseal markers were largely gracile, perhaps due to patients being too ill to work.
With the exception of life expectancy, these findings generally comport with what was seen in analyses of cemeteries at contemporaneous institutions as well in the general population of the time, suggesting there was generally good care for these individuals. Nevertheless, much else is left to be learned from those interred in the MSA cemetery, this is just the beginning.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/1144"],"dc:subject":["bioarchaeology","anthropology","osteobiography","mississippi state asylum","archaeology","asylum hill project","Biological and Physical Anthropology"],"dc:title":["Inside the Walls of the Asylum: Exploring the Lives of Individuals in the Mississippi State Asylum (1855-1935)"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:45:55Z"}