Mary Pengilly Diaries

After the Asylum

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Mary Pengilly Diaries

poster advertising performance of Diaries from the asylum by Normand Robichaud, April 2008, Moncton
Publicity poster for Dairies From the Asylum play.

Of all the work that Eugène and Nérée have done over the years, one of the projects of which they are most proud is Eugène’s uncovering of the diary of Mary Huestis Pengilly, a New Brunswick woman who was institutionalized in the “Provincial Lunatic Asylum” in St. John for six months starting in October, 1883. After her release from the hospital, she traveled to Fredericton to the home of the Lieutenant Governor and presented him with a copy of the diary she had kept while in the hospital. The same diary was published in 1885.

Transcription

stage performance with woman with long white hair and grey dress standing to stage right and woman with nurse's cap sitting at desk with typewriter
Scene from Diaries from the Asylum Production, 2008.

 

Read Mary Pengilly’s Diary, a rare 19th century patient voice.