Wikipedia:GLAM/Wellcome/Events and Workshops/Beyond the Asylum 2

About the event

This event followed on from another Beyond the Asylum Wikithon

Postcard of a woman sending her husband away on holiday in order to pursue an affair with the "nerve specialist" who prescribed the trip.

Linked with the Wellcome Collection exhibition Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond, this Beyond the Asylum session will give you a chance to hear about some recent fascinating research on the history of psychiatry and mental health, and then give you the opportunity to make some of that history available to other people all over the world by learning to edit Wikipedia content.

We'll begin with a morning of talks on various aspects of the history of psychiatry and mental health, to provide some inspiration for the editing to come! After a break for lunch, we'll dive into some wiki-training from Alice White, Wikimedian in Residence at the Wellcome Library, which will cover everything from to creating an account and to how to edit. After learning your way around and getting comfortable with editing, you will have the opportunity to develop articles on the history of psychiatry: there are lots of pages on institutions, groups and individuals (particularly women) that are missing or very brief, so there’s lots of scope for making some exciting improvements!

Experienced Wikipedia editors and complete beginners are both welcome to attend - we'll provide training for anyone new to editing. Participants should bring a laptop or tablet (or request one in advance when you sign up) – editing is much easier with a keyboard. If you’ve spotted an article that needs improving, bring along your queries and we’ll see what we can do to help!

How do I prepare?

• Sign up for the event!
• Create a Wikipedia account (look at the top right of this page for the link). You don't need to do anything else, but it'll speed things up on the day if you've already signed up for an account.
• Bring a laptop (wifi will be provided), some laptops may be available - let me know in advance via email if you'll need to borrow one.
• Learn about editing if you like: see Visual Editor user guide for more information.
• Think about what you would like to edit about - you can even prepare some materials to bring with you on the day (to help with verifiability).
• Check out the notability guidelines and what topics can be written about on Wikipedia.
• Think about whether you have any conflicts of interest.

Programme

The day will start at 10am, with a chance to check out the exhibition and warm up with a cup of tea or coffee.

We'll then move on to hearing some inspirational history of psychiatry & mental health (there'll be a break between the talks for lunch - please let me know of any dietary requirements in advance). Talks will include:

• Hilary Marland - Bedlam in Broad Arrows: Mental Health and the Prison System
• Jennifer Kain - Sailors beyond the asylum: Experiences of 'mad' merchant seamen in 1910s New Zealand
• David Vaughan - Off the Page: Mad or Bad. Crime and Insanity in Victorian Britain
• Chris Millard - Jealous husbands, errant boyfriends and refrigerator mothers: social environments and mental health in twentieth-century Britain
• Gianetta Rands - An Introduction to Pioneering Women Psychiatrists

Then we'll move on to some wiki-editing! Experienced and new editors are very welcome - there'll be training for new editors and tips for experienced editors - to improve some history of psychiatry and mental health pages.

Participants

Wiki-editors can add their names here during the event...

• Joseph2302 10:46, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• Sam Walton (talk)
• Zeromonk (talk) 11:05, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• Thisandthem (talk) 14:36, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• Glynbp (talk) 15:34, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• A-dim-december-morning (talk) 14:49, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• Cjm131 (talk) 14:51, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• LottieWhittingham (talk) 14:53, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• Hilary.vanStrien (talk) 14:54, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• Cat matthe (talk) 14:55, 19 November 2016 (UTC)
• Fluff35 (talk) 14:56, 19 November 2016 (UTC)

Wiki Pages to Improve/Create

Here are some suggestions (along with links to more information to get you started) - feel free to add your own too!

• Helen Boyle (doctor) does not have a page - she was Brighton’s first woman GP and worked in asylums and on mental health. Sources here, here, and here.
• You might want to edit Enid Balint's page - she was a psychiatric social worker and did pioneering work using casework and training GPs.
• There's no history section on the Royal College of Psychiatrists page!
• We could improve the page of Clare Winnicott, who did notable work on the psychological concepts of transitional objects and transitional participants.

Male Lunatic Asylum at Kissy in Sierra Leone, photo from Wellcome Images

• Kissy Lunatic Asylum, established in Sierra Leone in 1820 particularly for liberated Africans who had been recently enslaved.
• James Tilly Matthews - his page has nothing on his designs for a new version of Bedlam, and no infobox.
• We can add some information on mental health at Pentonville prison in the 1800s. We also could add some images of the isolation techniques (also see here) used there. - Newspapers.com has a large number of good newspaper articles on the prison. Speak to Sam if you want access to them!
• The pages of prisoner Florence Maybrick and of psychiatrist Forbes Benignus Winslow, who wrote about Victorian prisons and mental health, could be improved.
• We can improve the page of Celestina Sommer, whose case raised questions of crime and insanity in British law.
• Daniel M'Naghten's page has no infobox.
• Mary Pearcey's page needs more citations.
• There should be a page for Helen Allison, founder of the National Autistic Society (whose page could also use some work!). A couple of sources on her here and here.
• The page on Morbid jealousy needs tidying up.
• Robina Addis has a brief page - information on her here could improve it.
• James Adam (Asylum superintendent) has no page - information on him here.
• George Shuttleworth has no page - information on him here.
• Rudolf Karl Freudenberg has no page - information on him here.
• The page on the concept Non compos mentis doesn't have much on its history (though it has more since Tuesday's editathon! Chip in and help!), or reference to Brydall's book (downstairs in the exhibition).
• The Mental After Care Association has no page. You can find information on the organisation here.
• Ella Freeman Sharpe's page could use some improvements - e.g. adding an infobox.
• Mary Barkas has no page. She was the first female house physician at Bedlam. There's information to get you started here.
• Clare Winnicott's page needs improvement.
• Esther Bick created the technique of Therapeutic Infant Observation. She doesn't yet have a page. You can read more about her here.
• Ethilda Budgett Meakin Herford was the director of a hospital, a key figure in establishing psychoanalysis in Britain, an honorary physician for two different institutions, and founded a school! You can find more about her here.
• The Stone of madness page is quite brief, as is the Cutting the Stone page.
• We could add to the Ship of fools page - there's a digitised version that you can get to if you're physically in the library. We could also make it more prominent on the page of author Sebastian Brant.
• We could add to the page of Urban Metcalf, patient at two sites of Bedlam who had allegedly tried to murder King George III (see here).
• The page on Medical restraint has nothing on the history of this process, or the debate about restraint in asylums.
• We could add an infobox to Asylum reformer John Conolly, and some more informtation on the non-restraint debates.
• There is a section in the Geel page on psychiatric care, but it only has two citation and there's lots more to add now.
• The page of Thomas Tryon could include more information on his views on madness and spirituality.
• Information on the patients' account by Herman Charles Merivale could be added to his page.
• We might like to add to the Gartloch Hospital page.
• We could translate / create a page for the horse Marco Cavallo.
• The page for Asylum (magazine) can be significantly improved.
• James Henry Pullen and Professor Hippolyte Bernheim's pages could be tidied up a little, as could those of Daniel Hack Tuke and Walter Cooper Dendy (which have no infoboxes).

Content Improved/Created

Any content we improve or create will be listed here after the event...

• Neil Kessel - New article
• Mary Barkas - new article
• Asylum (magazine) - improved by adding more information and a reference.
• Ne'er-do-well - Expanded with context
• Hypochromic anemia - Expanded
• Hysteria - Expanded
• Esther Bick - New article
• Florence Maybrick - Expanded
• Helen Boyle (doctor) - new article

Inspiration for even more improvements

If you'd like to join us remotely or continue to edit after the event, there are plenty of improvements to make - we'll suggest some here soon!