1,337 Comments for Middletown State Hospital

Like fine wine, you only get better as time goes by, CAS. ;-)

Those poor poor people were getting the best treatment technology and state funding could provide at the time. If you look around the comments you can find a link that Lynne posts from time to time showing how patients with mental illnesses were treated almost 150 years ago. One was that would put them into a chair and spin the around a lot hoping that that would fix the problem. You have to take what was given to you at the time. Our children's children are going to look back at our "modern medicine" and go "Oh god! The things they did to people."

bsmarcia -- my mother's parents were from Budapest. My Hungarian grandmother loved to tell me stories of when she was a little girl -- she said they absolutely put garlic on the front door of the home to ward off vampires!! Of course, she probably had too much goulash - but I believed her!!

I thought your pupils became opaque when you die. I know that my dogs did rather quickly when she suddenly died. That womans eyes look normal when I enlarged the picture. I inherited some pictures of relatives of my father from Hungary and one of them is a man in a coffin. It's very weird and creepy.

I purchased "Wisconsin Death Trip" several years ago. No, it wasn't much fun in those days. So many babies (and mothers) died in childbirth or at a very young age. The pictures of the deceased children are the most heartbreaking. But it was "the thing to do" back then having pictures taken of your deceased loved ones!

The book is absolutely worth a "look see."

i LIKE this shot.
(however, due to unforseen typo circumstances i just decided that i LIME it instead)

I forgot to mention that there are several scenes in "The Others" (a fantastic movie) about post-death photography.

Lynne- There is also a documentary based on "Wisconsin Death Trip", with the same title. It's worth seeing.

absolutely fascinating.

CAS, that photo is absolutely amazing. I have seen many a Victorian portrait taken after death, but I have to admit I've never seen anyone looking that "lifelike," ESPECIALLY given that it was taken 9 days after her death!

2 months ago I purchased an excellent book called, "Wisconsin Death Trip" by Michael Lesy & Charles Van Schaick. They compile some fascinating photographs taken between 1890 and 1910 in Black River Falls, Wisconsin and intersperse them with clippings from state newspapers and admissions files from a state psychiatric facility. Very weird but very enlightening. When people act like life was fun and easy back in the "good old days," it quickly becomes obvious they weren't actually there at the time or they wouldn't describe it as having been that much fun.

CAS, that picture is amazing it looks like she is really sitting there posing for a pic. my grandmaother had some pictures like that and I have found some in anitque stores, but husband will not let me get them, especially when I say " oh look a post mortum shot"

Yes, It's truly sad that people with mental problems were taken somewhere where they could receive specialized care and treatment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Norwood Asylum was a mental institution that cared for more than people who were just depressed. Also, please let's try to remember that people came here BECAUSE of a mental condition that had BEFORE being admitted and treated by the hospital. They did not go there in perfect mental conditions and develop problems later on simply because the walls were pink.

Keep in mind also that Motts took these photos anywhere from 10-40 years after the institution was closed. The deterioration you see today is from neglect after all that time. When the hospital was still active it looked much, much better than this.

How depressing; how sad. What those poor people must have went through!

These pictures are just too much. Motts is taking pictures of things that one day will no longer exist.