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The following photos are from a tour of the Glore Psychiatric Museum, located in St. Joseph, Missouri. The current museum, orginally a hospital named State Lunatic Asylum No.2, was built in the mid-19th Century. George Glore, for whom the museum is named, was an employee for the Missouri Department of Mental Health who dedicated his working life to reducing "the stigma associated with psychiatric treatment for patients, their families, and their communities". The above photograph is of a drawing from 1838, depicting a schizophrenic patient in a "camisole", or pre-modern straight-jacket.
The photograph above is of a logo on a bedsheet from Glore. The mannequin that was covered by this bedsheet was forcibly strapped to its bed and was accompanied by a description indicating that a patient in this mannequin's position would be wrapped in cold, wet blankets. The goal of this treatment was to calm an uncooperative patient; although, if you ask me, hypothermia makes one pretty calm, too.
The tale of Phinneas Gage is about a miner who, when tamping down a hole filled with black powder, accidentally lit the powder by a spark from his iron tamping rod. Although he survived the ensuing explosion, the tamping iron was shot from the hole, into the side of his skull and out the top of his skull on the opposite side. The photograph above demonstrates this injury. As time went by, Gage proved to have many deleterious effects from his injury, including emotional instability, personality changes, coordination difficulties and blindness in his left eye.
The photograph above is of a trephination drill and its corresponding drill bits. This tool would be used to rid the body, and particularly the skull, of any number of offending substances, "humours", or pressure. Do not try at home.
The photograph above is an example of a phrenology model. This photograph complements the Gage and trephination photographs in that it describes how an insult to a particular part of the brain may alter a patient's ability to perform certain tasks.
The photograph above is of an oil painting by a former patient at Glore and is titled The Schizophrenic Touches the Forever and Winds It About Her Body. This painting alone easily warrants a visit to the museum; although this is not to slight the other exhibits at Glore.
The photograph above is of a restraining chair designed to calm agitated or uncooperative patients. Personally, this chair looks about as calming as someone yelling "RELAX" in my ears at 150 decibels.
The photograph above is of an early-19th Century syringe and surgeon kit. Tetanus, anyone?
The photograph above is of a collage of 1,446 bitesize items ingested by a former Glore patient. Nails, buttons and safety pins comprise most of the collection. The patient died during surgery to remove the items.
The photograph above is of countless bundles of empty cigarette packs. Tens of thousands of these bundles were collected by a former Glore patient who was under the delusion that if he collected enough, the cigarette companies would donate a new wheel chair to his ward. As sad as this story might sound and as deluded as this patient was, the staff on this patient's ward eventually donated enough money to make this patient's delusion a reality.
The photograph above is of a work of art designed by a former Glore patient. The smoking samurai was created by dyeing ground egg shells and then gluing the colored pieces to a paper (or fabric) background.
