23 December 2024
Museums

Glore Psychiatric Museum

Jenniferby Jennifer

The Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri is creepy, but in a good way. The museum covers three large floors and many years of mental health treatment and history.

The focus is on the adjacent former state mental hospital, State Lunatic Asylum No. 2, which opened in 1874 with 275 patients – already overcrowded, as it was intended for 250.

In the late 1800s, additional space was added on, and by the 1950s, the population had grown to nearly 3,000 patients.

Patient receiving an “ice pick lobotomy” in 1949. If you look closely, you can see the pick enters through the eye socket! Eek!
Nails, screws, bolts, buttons, thimbles and other objects that were removed from the stomach of a 31-year-old female patient in 1910. A total of 1,446 objects were removed!!!

In the 1990s the building was repurposed as a state prison, with a new psychiatric center opening across the street (though hosting only 108 beds). The museum today is housed in what was the former surgery and out patient building of the old hospital.

The museum collection began in 1966 when an employee of the Missouri Department of Mental Health,  George Glore, who with the help of patients built models of primitive mental health treatment devices for Mental Health Awareness Week.

Over the following decades it grew to include artifacts from the hospital and patients – like literally from the patients – one exhibit is of the 453 nails that the patient ingested!

An eggshell mosaic made by a patient as part of occupational therapy in the 1960s.

Also included in the admission are the Black Archives, Doll, Archeology, and Native American museums. We went through this at a good clip, as they were not of much interest and paled in comparison to the Psychiatric Museum.

The cover photo is the hospital’s physical therapy room – in use until 1997!

Wheelchairs used in the 1930s and 1940s.
From the original museum collection, a model of the “tranquilizer chair” near the end of the 18th century. It held arms, legs, head and body in a state of total immobility, during which time treatments with leaches, for example, could be performed.
Patients made wicker furniture as part as occupational therapy until the 1930s. The furniture was either used in the hospital or sold to the public. When patients were particularly skilled, their treatment plans could be altered to keep them on hand longer.
A 1992 model of a “hollow wheel” from the late 18th century. The patient would be put inside, where he could remain either completely motionless, or run like a hamster. Patients would be put in from 36 to 48 hours, when they would emerge either exhausted from the movement or “tractable…as a result of the settling effect of the wheel.”
The hospital relied on patient labor to function. While it gave the patients an output for their energy and a sense of accomplishment, it also was the only way for the institution to survive financially, as of course the patients were not paid for their work. Pictured are items from the hospital’s sewing room. 2,250 dresses were sewn a year, as well as restraints, straitjackets, curtains and more. Two employees supervised up to 40 patients.
Fever cabinets, used to treat syphilis in the 1930s and 1940s. About 10% of the patients at that time had syphilis, and a high fever could cure the insanity brought on by the third state of syphilis. Patients’ body temperature would be raised above 105 degrees in cabinets such as these, but burns could also result. Penicillin replaced this treatment in the late 1940s.

Jennifer

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