The Voice of History? Patients, Privacy and Archival Research Ethics in Histories of Insanity

Abstract

These documents and letters – which I have placed in chronological order, and taken excerpts from, but have not otherwise edited or changed in any way – can be found at the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository.2 They comprise, in the main, correspondence between various officials from the offices of the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Minister of Justice and Public Works, and Dr James Hyslop, Medical Superintendent of the Natal Government Asylum from 1882 to 1913. The file concerning Mrs Emma L also contains depositions, statements, correspondence to and from the legal firm appointed by the family of Mrs L, and a number of petitions, affidavits, and letters by several members of the family, most notably by Mr Henry Debney L and by Emma L herself.