Glore Psychiatric Museum

The collection began in 1966 when George Glore, an employee of the Missouri Department of Mental Health, built some life-size models of primitive devices formerly used for mental health treatment, for display during a Mental Health Awareness Week.[1] The models, together with a growing collection of other artifacts, became a museum in 1967, designed to illustrate how the treatment of mental illness has progressed through time. Glore explained, "We really can't have a good appreciation of the strides we've made (in mental health treatment) if we don't look at the atrocities of the past."[3] Glore continued to add to the collection throughout his 41-year career with the department. After his retirement in the 1990s he continued to serve as the museum's curator until his death in 2010, after which Scott Clark became curator.[1]

At first the museum was housed in a ward of the original "State Lunatic Asylum No. 2", renamed the "St. Joseph State Hospital" in 1899.[2] The asylum was built in 1874[4] and resembled a fortress. From an initial population of 25 patients it expanded until it housed nearly 3,000 patients in the 1950s.[2] In the 1990s it was re-purposed as a state prison, and a new 108-bed facility called Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation opened across the street from the original hospital. The Glore Museum moved to a 1968 building outside the prison gates that was originally a clinic for patients at the mental hospital.[2]

The museum displays many artifacts from the mental hospital, including medical equipment, staff uniforms, photographs, and artwork and writing created by the patients. One exhibit tells the story of a man who spent 72 years as a patient in the hospital.[3]

Some of the most notable exhibits are the full-sized models, built by Glore, of treatment devices from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.[1] One such item is a "Tranquilizer Chair", complete with hood, hand and feet restraints and a built-in portable toilet to accommodate extended sessions.[2][5] The chair was invented by Benjamin Rush, known as "The Father of American Psychiatry", who published the first American textbook about mental illness in 1812.[5]

Other items include the "Bath of Surprise", a platform designed to quickly submerse the patient into a bath of ice water;[6][7] the "Giant Patient Treadmill," which would encourage agitated patients to remain still, lest they become exhausted by causing movement of the giant wheel; the "Lunatic Box", an upright, coffin-like box in which patients who were deemed uncontrollable were confined until they calmed down;[2] and the "O'Halloran's Swing", a hammock-like device used to calm an agitated patient or induce sleep.[6][2]

• Emotional mental health in the United States
• History of psychiatric institutions
• Psychiatric hospital

• Official website