Gov. JB Pritzker tried Wednesday to correct an historic wrong by re-naming Springfield’s McFarland Mental Health Center for a woman committed by her husband in 1860.

“Elizabeth (Packard) was taken from her children and incarcerated by her husband at the Jacksonville State Hospital,” said Jenn Edginton, interim director of the Ilinois State Museum, “for being an independent woman and disagreeing with his opinions. At that time, that was legal. For the next three years Elizabeth endured cruelty and abuse, which she documented in her writing.”

Dr. Andrew McFarland was complicit in many of the commitments, including that of Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard.