The Asylum Hill Cemetery is the name given to a tract of land which is now part of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Mississippi. Between 1855 and 1935, UMMC’s main campus was the site of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, which was renamed the State Hospital for the Insane in 1900. Archaeological studies undertaken in 2013 and 2014 revealed the existence of as many as 7,000 graves located on the only remaining undeveloped part of UMMC’s campus.
Further examination of historical records indicated that a cemetery had once existed at the location during the time when the asylum was in operation. Patients who died at the institution were interred in the burial ground if they had no family or if family members were unable or unwilling to claim the remains. After the asylum closed in 1935, the state-owned land lay untouched for two decades. The painted wooden markers placed on each grave deteriorated over time and the existence of the cemetery was largely forgotten.
After several graves were discovered in 2012 during construction on campus, Dr. Ralph Didlake, UMMC professor of surgery, vice chancellor for academic affairs and director of the Center for Bioethics and the Medical Humanities, saw the need for a diverse group of scholars and community members to help plan the exhumation, study, and respectful memorialization of those buried on the UMMC campus. He formed the Asylum Hill Research Consortium at that time so scholars and other community partners could contribute to the project. Descendant outreach has been a cornerstone of the project from the beginning, with descendants contributing their family stories and guiding the archaeological research plan.
