What Does The Inside Of An 18th Century Mental Asylum Look Like?

[cuddyclothes]

Hello, it's me again, the author of THE STORY THAT WILL NOT DIE.  All of the information I have gotten here has been absolutely invaluable

Comments

[samtyr]

You might want to check abandonedplaces since they feature a lot of asylums and hospitals. I don't know if there are any specific pics of an 18th century one but there should be some that are close.

[cuddyclothes]

That comm is SO COOL. Nothing that I could use, but still really amazing. Thank you!!

[penhaligonblue]

The closest I can get to answering your question is pointing you to the film (and play, though that doesn't offer much in the way of visuals) Quills, which takes place at an early-19th c. asylum. I wouldn't depend on the film for accurate sets, but perhaps you can track down information on the historical people and places depicted.

[cuddyclothes]

Oh, God, I loved that film. I identified so much with the Marquis de Sade.

[pandorasblog]

I don't know, but as long as you're researching asylums, this one was open to the public during the 18th century, and given its infamy I'd imagine there must be primary source written accounts of what it looked like out there somewhere...

[pandorasblog]

Also, widening the search to include 18th century hospitals in general might be helpful, since I'm guessing that some similarities must exist between different types of institution catering to large numbers of people. A Google image search for 18th century hospitals turned up some nice engravings:

http://www.google.co.uk/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=18th+century+hospitals&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=VDqaTLCNE93NjAe1_N0Y&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDYQsAQwAw&biw=1134&bih=593

[cuddyclothes]

Thank you! I looked over there, and it is rich with images.

[ooxc]

I'm sure that meals would normally have been communal - if only because, as late as the 1960s, some "asylums" were still in use as "psychiatric hospitals" and the same dining halls were still in use
The exception would be where patients were violent or where there were "private" patients whose family might be paying extra for their keep

[toxic_apiaceae]

I don't know if this will help at all, but here's a link to Historic Asylums:

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylums/

At the very least, this will give you specific names and locations to look up for pictures and such.