Rufus Wyman

Rufus Wyman (1778–1842) was an American physician. He was the first physician and superintendent of the Asylum for the Insane, renamed in 1823 to McLean Hospital, part of the Massachusetts General Hospital system, and the first mental hospital in the state.

Wyman was born into a middle-class family in Woburn, Massachusetts, whose forebears had arrived in the state in the mid-seventeenth century. He received his early education at the local school, and then graduated from Westford Academy. He entered Harvard College in 1795 and graduated with from its medical school in 1799. He spent a year teaching school before starting his medical training with Samuel Brown and John Jeffries. He practiced with Jeffries for one year then moved to Chelmsford, Massachusetts where he established his practice. He was appointed a justice of the peace and came to be known as a compassionate and intelligent physician. He married in 1810 and the family grew to four sons and one daughter. Wyman was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1812.

In Boston, a group of prominent citizens planned to establish a hospital to include an asylum for the insane since only one almshouse provided care. A corporation was formed, a charter was received from the State legislature, and fund raising was undertaken. An estate was purchased in Charleston to house the asylum. The mansion became the superintendents’ residence. The Trustees appointed Wyman as the first superintendent and physician of the asylum. Before taking office, the Trustees sent Wyman to New York and Philadelphia to inspect the existing asylums at New York Hospital and the Pennsylvania Hospital.

Wyman and his family moved to his new post in 1818. Wyman was the only physician at the asylum for 17 years. An assistant physician was appointed who helped in the apothecary to distribute medicine, maintained medical records, and visited patients daily. In 1823, the Trustees appointed a steward to take over the business duties of the asylum which allowed Wyman to carry on as physician.

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