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Psychiatric Services Collection
Image: Electro-Convulsive Therapy Machine
Source: Museum Victoria
The Psychiatric Services Collection is made up of over 1600 objects and covers the period of 1870-1980. The objects collected from several Victorian psychiatric institutions tell a sad story of neglect and lack of political will. Much of the museum's collection was assembled during the 1950s by Dr Charles Brothers while he was working within the system to bring about reforms.
Victoria's first 'lunatic asylum' was a bluestone barracks in extensive grounds at Yarra Bend.
By the late 1860s, the colony's population of people with psychiatric disabilities, including confused and dementing elderly people, had increased enormously.
Between 1867 and 1872, the government opened three institutions, at Kew, Beechworth and Ararat, as shelters for 'lunatics'. The buildings were huge, with large dormitories and kitchens, and extensive gardens and farmlands. Capable patients could learn and work at a trade, and a strict routine was followed, with the aim of 'imposing order on chaotic minds'. Soon these institutions were themselves overcrowded, and attempts to separate patients by type of illness faltered.
The asylum population comprised people with intellectual disabilities, confused elderly, and those with psychiatric illnesses. Treatments included restriction, isolation and sometimes, sedation, and there was limited contact with families and friends. Some people were calmed by the regular routine and the break from outside responsibility and were able to be discharged, but many stayed in institutions until they died.
Dr Brothers' investigations uncovered the institutionalised poverty and lack of hope resulting from decades of government and community neglect. The texture of daily life in an impoverished and overcrowded institution is evoked by well-worn domestic objects, battered metal chamber pots and standardised clothing. Collection objects range from uniforms, restraining devices, medications, surgical instruments, kitchen utensils, gardening tools, artworks and building fittings.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 21 - 30) 711 items
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Artificial Teeth - Porcelain Cuspid & Molar, DeTrey's Diatorics, circa 1925
Set of Porcelain Cuspid and Molar Artificial Teeth, manufactured by DeTrey's Diatorics, for the Amalgamated Dental Co., Ltd, London, England, circa 1925. They were used in the psychiatr ...
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Artificial Teeth - Porcelain Cuspid & Molar, DeTrey's Diatorics, circa 1925
Set of Porcelain Cuspid and Molar Artificial Teeth, manufactured by DeTrey's Diatorics, for the Amalgamated Dental Co., Ltd, London, England, circa 1925. They were used in the psychiatr ...
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Artificial Teeth - Porcelain Cuspid & Molar, DeTrey's Diatorics, circa 1925
Set of Porcelain Cuspid and Molar Artificial Teeth, manufactured by DeTrey's Diatorics, for the Amalgamated Dental Co., Ltd, London, England, circa 1925. They were used in the psychiatr ...
Images: 1 -
Artificial Teeth - Incisors, Anatoform, circa 1925
Set of seven Porcelain Incisors Artificial Teeth, manufactured by Anatoform, circa 1925. Distributed by the Amalgamated Dental Trade Distributors Ltd, London. They were used in the ment ...
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Plan - Beechworth Mental Hospital, 1980
Hand drawn, aerial plan of Beechworth Mental Hospital from 1980.
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Telephone - L. M. Ericsson, Skeletal, circa 1892
Skeletal Telephone made by L. M. Ericsson, circa 1892. It was used in the Head Office of the Victorian Government Department of Mental Hygiene, circa 1900. Ericsson Skeletal phones wer ...
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Artificial Teeth - Porcelain Cuspid & Molar, Ash's Free-Plane Diatorics, circa 1925
Eight Porcelain Cuspid and Molar, Artificial Teeth, manufactured by Ash's Free-Plane Diatorics, England, circa 1925. They were used in the psychiatric hospital, Lakeside Hospital, Balla ...
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Artificial Teeth - Porcelain Cuspid & Molar, DeTrey's Diatorics, circa 1925
Set of Porcelain Cuspid and Molar Artificial Teeth manufactured by DeTrey's Diatorics, for the Amalgamated Dental Co. Limited, London, England, circa 1925. They were used in the psychia ...
Images: 1 -
Artificial Teeth - Porcelain Cuspid & Molar, DeTrey's Diatorics, circa 1925
Set of Porcelain Cuspid and Molar Artificial Teeth manufactured by DeTrey's Diatorics, for the Amalgamated Dental Co. Limited, London, England, circa 1925. They were used in the psychia ...
Images: 1 -
Artificial Teeth - Porcelain Cuspid & Molar, Detrey's Diatorics, circa 1925
Set of Porcelain Cuspid and Molar Artificial Teeth manufactured by DeTrey's Diatorics, for the Amalgamated Dental Co. Limited, London, England, circa 1925. They were used in the psychia ...
Images: 1
