Philadelphia and the surrounding area has long been a hub of mental health research, training, and clinical practice.  The evolution of small private and larger state hospitals near  universities and medical schools, began with the establishment of humane treatment of the mentally ill by Benjamin Rush at the Pennsylvania Hospital.  This concentration of activity has provided a continuous opportunity for the development of new knowledge about the causes of major mental disorders and the development of innovative treatments for these illnesses.  Within this context, Norristown State Hospital was established on a rural agricultural site in 1879 as the regional psychiatric hospital for eastern Pennsylvania. By the turn of the century over 4000 patients were being treated at Norristown for a major mental illness using methods based to a large degree on the Quaker tradition of “moral therapy,” combined with early forms of somatic treatment and day-to-day work on the 800-acre farm. Arthur P. Noyes, M.D. served as superintendent of Norristown State Hospital for nearly a quarter of a century (1936-1959).  It is difficult to communicate to the present generation what the world of state hospital psychiatry was like in 1936 when Arthur Noyes arrived at Norristown.