The Glore Psychiatric Museum is part of a complex of St. Joseph, Missouri, museums, along with the Black Archives Museum, the St. Joseph Museum, and the American Indian and History Galleries. The Glore exhibits feature the 130-year history of the adjacent state mental hospital, and illustrate the history of mental health treatment through the ages.[1] It has been called one of the fifty most unusual museums in the United States.[2]
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| Established | 1967 |
|---|---|
| Location | 3406 Frederick Ave., St. Joseph, Missouri, United States |
| Coordinates | 39°46′34″N 94°48′30″W / 39.77611°N 94.80833°W |
| Type | Psychiatric history |
| Founder | George Glore |
| Curator | Scott Clark |
| Public transit access |  St. Joseph Transit |
| Website | website |
History
editThe collection began in 1966 when George Glore, an employee of the Missouri Department of Mental Health, built some life-size models of primitive devices formerly used for mental health treatment, for display during a Mental Health Awareness Week.[1] The models, together with a growing collection of other artifacts, became a museum in 1967, designed to illustrate how the treatment of mental illness has progressed through time. Glore explained, "We really can't have a good appreciation of the strides we've made (in mental health treatment) if we don't look at the atrocities of the past."[3] Glore continued to add to the collection throughout his 41-year career with the department. After his retirement in the 1990s he continued to serve as the museum's curator until his death in 2010, after which Scott Clark became curator.[1]
At first the museum was housed in a ward of the original "State Lunatic Asylum No. 2", renamed the "St. Joseph State Hospital" in 1899.[2] The asylum was built in 1874[4] and resembled a fortress. From an initial population of 25 patients it expanded until it housed nearly 3,000 patients in the 1950s.[2] In the 1990s it was re-purposed as a state prison, and a new 108-bed facility called Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation opened across the street from the original hospital. The Glore Museum moved to a 1968 building outside the prison gates that was originally a clinic for patients at the mental hospital.[2]
Exhibits
editThe museum displays many artifacts from the mental hospital, including medical equipment, staff uniforms, photographs, and artwork and writing created by the patients. One exhibit tells the story of a man who spent 72 years as a patient in the hospital.[3]
Some of the most notable exhibits are the full-sized models, built by Glore, of treatment devices from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.[1] One such item is a "Tranquilizer Chair", complete with hood, hand and feet restraints and a built-in portable toilet to accommodate extended sessions.[2][5] The chair was invented by Benjamin Rush, known as "The Father of American Psychiatry", who published the first American textbook about mental illness in 1812.[5]
Other items include the "Bath of Surprise", a platform designed to quickly submerse the patient into a bath of ice water;[6][7] the "Giant Patient Treadmill," which would encourage agitated patients to remain still, lest they become exhausted by causing movement of the giant wheel; the "Lunatic Box", an upright, coffin-like box in which patients who were deemed uncontrollable were confined until they calmed down;[2] and the "O'Halloran's Swing", a hammock-like device used to calm an agitated patient or induce sleep.[6][2]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d "Website". Glore Psychiatric Museum. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph". legendsofamerica.com. Retrieved June 28, 2014.[better source needed]
- ^ a b Stone-Gordon, Tammy (2010). Private History in Public: Exhibition and the Settings of Everyday Life. AltaMira Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-7591-1934-5.
- ^ "Saint Joseph State Hospital". kirkbridebuildings.com. Retrieved Jun 27, 2014.
- ^ a b "Benjamin Rush, M.D. (1749–1813): 'The Father of American Psychiatry'". Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry through 1900. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
- ^ a b Lisman, Gary L.; Parr, Arlene (2005). Bittersweet Memories: A History of the Peoria State Hospital. Trafford Publishing. pp. 71–73. ISBN 9781412033367.
- ^ "Hydrotherapy: Bain de surprise". Cornellpsychiatry.org. Retrieved June 28, 2014.