Until the 1840s, the mentally ill received little therapy and often were neglected. On the recommendation of Governor Epaphroditus Ransom, the legislature established Michigan’s first state institution for the treatment of mental patients in 1848. Kalamazoo was chosen as the site in 1850. Construction of the first building began in 1854, but it was not completed for five years. The first patient was admitted on April 23, 1859. Superintendent Dr. Edwin H. Van Dusen anticipated many methods of treatment that later won general acceptance. Linda Richards, America’s first trained nurse, served here as superintendent of nurses from 1906 to 1909. This hospital was the first in Michigan to open an outpatient psychiatric clinic and to begin a home-boarding program. Adoption in 1910 of the name Kalamazoo State Hospital, replacing the original name, Michigan Asylum for the Insane, symbolized a new concept of mental illness.