ADHD - An Illustrated historical overview

The Emma Pendleton Bradley Home T he Emma Pendleton Bradley Home was America’s first neuropsychiatric hospi- tal for children, and named for George and Helen Bradley’s only child Emma Pendleton Bradley (1879–1907), who had been stricken with encephalitis as a young child. In his will, the affluent businessman George Bradley (1846–1906), who among other activities had helped Graham Bell to market the telephone, requested that the Baton House, the family’s Providence estate, be converted into a treatment facility for children. The institution opened its doors in 1931 in a new, less urban, setting and in accordance with the terms of George Bradley’s will, the facility gave first preference to poor, needy children from Rhode Island and families were only billed if they had the means to pay. Owing to its focus on child psychiatry, the Emma Pendleton Bradley Home at- tracted many talented researchers who made seminal contributions to the inves- tigation of ADHD. George Bradley. Courtesy of Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital, East Providence, Rhode Island, USA.