Monday, January 31, 2011

Glore Psychiatric Museum

Getting to the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St Joseph, MO has been the #1 goal since I started this blog, and it's also the #1 "tip" I receive from readers. Since it is so popular, and since I'm having such a hard time paring down the 200 pictures we took, I'm going to divide this into two parts. Today we're going to talk about the history of the building and of psychiatric treatment.

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The Glore Psychiatric Museum started as the collection of George Glore, who worked for the Missouri Department of Mental Health and St Joseph State Hospital from 1956-1996. Originally called State Lunatic Asylum #2 when it opened in 1874, and then State Hospital #2, it became St Joseph State Hospital in 1952. The museum is housed in a building that was once the admitting ward and hospital, and services for the mentally ill are now provided across the street at Northwest Missouri Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center.

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Above is a depiction of hydrotherapy, which was just a warm bath used to calm agitated patients. This practice is not really used anymore since we have drugs that are more effective than trapping a person in a bathtub. Sidenote: the glamour mannequins used in these displays were donated to the museum by a department store. It is, to say the least, startling to round the corners in this museum.

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Likewise, a wet sheet pack (usually using cold water) served the same purpose. According to the dedication plaque at the entrance, the purpose of George Glore's collection is to explain how the treatment of mental illness has improved, and to educate through the experiences of mental patients. The thing to remember here is that, while some of these things seem horrifying or barbaric to us now, they really were doing the best they could with the information available at the time.

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Above is a depiction of insulin shock treatment, which was used to treat schizophrenia. It was a long and dangerous process that basically only had the benefit of making the patient more relaxed afterward and slightly more cooperative with psychotherapy. The "Golden Rule" posted elsewhere in the building says, "Do unto others as you would be done by. No one is immune from mental disease. Any employee of this hospital may, by a freak of fate, become a patient. Let your care of patients be what you would desire for yourself, or any member of your family, if mentally ill." This is from the 1931 Employee Handbook for State Hospital #2. Kind of surprising, isn't it? Like I said, they did the best they could.

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St Joseph State Hospital also treated people with syphilis. Above and below are exterior and interior photos of a fever cabinet, or hot box. As you can see in the picture below, the inside of a fever cabinet is covered in light bulbs and mirrors that raise the interior temperature to 105 degrees. A similar treatment using malaria was also used back then. The idea here was that inducing fever would kill the spirochete (bacteria) that causes syphilis. It worked, but the treatment could be more dangerous than the disease itself. Today, syphilis is cured with penicillin.

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As mentioned at the beginning, this building was once the hospital/clinic for the State Hospital. They had a dentist and ophthalmologist, x-ray lab, occupational therapy, surgery, and a morgue. One of my favorite displays was the story of the EEG machine.

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The EEG machine was purchased in 1960, but the two staff psychiatrists at the time had different ideas on how it should be used and were constantly fighting. One hid the machine from the other, and both had left the hospital by 1964. When they hired a new EEG technician, the first order of business was to search the whole hospital to find the machine. They finally found it in a seldom-used storage room, and then State Hospital #2 had the only EEG lab in what seems to be a tri-state area (the display names St Louis, Kansas City, Topeka, and Omaha in a way that doesn't make a lot of sense.)

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This is an artistic display, artist unknown, of 1,446 items found in the stomach of a woman who suffered from compulsive swallowing of non-food objects. Items removed included 453 nails, 42 screws, 9 bolts, 7 broken coat racks hooks, 5 thimbles, 3 salt shaker tops, 105 hair pins, 115 safety pins, 52 carpet tacks, and 37 needles. Sadly, she died in surgery when they tried to remove them.

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The museum started in 1968 when George Glore worked with hospital carpenters and patients to create an exhibit for Mental Health Awareness Week, creating full size replicas of mental health treatments from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It was such a hit that he was encouraged to expand. These replicas occupy one large room in the current museum.

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Behind the witch being burned at the stake is the Hollow Wheel from the late 18th century, which was similar to a treadmill, or hamster wheel, and was used to wear out feisty patients. The difference here was that they were locked inside, sometimes for 48 hours at a stretch, and had to either keep moving forward or backward, or stand perfectly still. Any attempt to break out would be thwarted with a good shove of the wheel by the attendant, which would force the patient to keep moving.

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Next we have the tranquilizer chair, invented by Benjamin Rush, in which patients could be imprisoned for up to 6 MONTHS. Dr Rush was a big fan of bleeding - he even had a promotional bleeding knife distributed by a drug manufacturer - and believed that mental disorders were caused by too much blood to the brain. The idea behind this chair was to restrict movement and quiet the pulse.

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These are dioramas made by a patient. Above left, restraint devices from the 16th and 17th centuries. Above right, physicians "stomping the devil out" of a man. Below left, water dousing or douching, in which cold water was thrown into the face of the patient to shock them to their senses. Below right, bloodletting to release impurities in the blood thought to cause mental disorders.

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There's a full size replica of the water douching above. And finally, the Bath of Surprise. It's pretty much what you would expect from the name. The patient sat on a trapdoor above the pool, and was dunked without warning. Seems rather labor intensive and cumbersome for an effect that could be accomplished with a bucket.

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Okay, I think that's enough for one day! Tune in next week when we will talk about what the patients did with their time at St Joseph State Hospital!

Direct Link to Part Two

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Return to the Laclede's Landing Wax Museum!

It's been awhile since CC&G visited the Wax Museum, and Francis had never been, so we went to see what's new this past weekend. I really miss Charlie. I don't know if he's still working there or not, but he hasn't been there the last two times I visited. It was so much more exciting when he was around (mainly because he would try to sneak up on us.)

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At least Charlie's head is still there. So what's new at the Wax Museum? That's an interesting question, because the two things I noticed the most are renovations to what I call the Hall of Jesus, and the Chamber of Horrors. (Warning: there are three pictures from the Hall of Jesus before I move onto Chamber of Horrors pictures that may not be suitable for young eyes.)

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As you can see, many of the Jesus Level figures are still missing digits, if not entire hands. I always thought it was interesting that a museum that devotes so much space to Jesus also decided to expand their Chamber of Horrors to two levels. Here are a few that were new to me.

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And some Action Cam from the basement. This doesn't SEEM new, and yet, I feel I would have remembered something so... noisy.



A couple we have no explanation for, and would like one. Seriously. Any ideas?

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And finally, a sneaky look at an upcoming exhibit!

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Laclede's Landing Wax Museum is still at 720 North Second Street. See their website for ticket information and operating hours.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Bellefontaine Cemetery, Part Two

So much going on the past couple months, I forgot that I promised more on Bellefontaine. As you may recall from part one, Francis and I did the walking tour back in November. The map we used barely devotes a sentence to each site, so we thought it might be nice to give you a little more detail about each person, or the architectural details highlighted. This is absolutely not meant to take the place of doing the tour on your own!

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1. Thomas Hart Benton - US Senator from Missouri who served for 30 years, the first person to serve 5 terms. He moved to St Louis in 1815, soon after the Missouri Territory opened. Benton was a champion of westward expansion and author of the first Homestead Acts. He was wounded in a duel against Charles Lucas on Bloody Island, a popular dueling sandbar in the Mississippi River at St Louis. A great quote from wikipedia: "I never quarrel, sir, but I do fight, sir, and when I fight, sir, a funeral follows, sir."

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2. Dr William Beaumont, MD (November 21, 1785 – April 25, 1853) - US Army Surgeon - Maybe I'm just weird, but I remember reading about this doctor before. He treated a man, Alexis St Martin, for a gunshot wound to the gut, thinking St Martin would die of his wounds, but he didn't. He recovered, but with a fistula (hole) that went straight through to his stomach. Dr Beaumont did all kinds of experiments with that hole in St Martin, and with his gastric juices. Controversial, but those experiments were instrumental in our understanding of the digestive process. Beaumont is called the Father of Gastric Physiology.

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3. Virgina Minor (March 27, 1824 – August 14, 1894) - Co-founder and first president of the Women's Suffrage Association of Missouri. Most famous for a case she lost, Minor v. Happersett, where she argued that the 14th amendment gave women the right to vote.

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4. Samuel Hawken (? 1792 - May 9, 1884) and his brother Jacob were gunsmiths and traders, famous for designing the Hawken rifle. For locals wondering the relation to Hawken House in Webster Groves, that house was built by one of the sons of Jacob Hawken.

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5. Robert Campbell (February 12, 1804 – October 10, 1879) - Campbell had his hand in a lot of pies over the course of his lifetime, including fur trading, real estate, banking, and retail. He and his partner William Sublette had both a fur trading company and a dry goods store called Sublette & Campbell. Campbell's home is one of St Louis's best historic homes, the Campbell House Museum, which I blogged about last year.

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6. James Yeatman (August 27, 1818 – July 7, 1901) - Yeatman was a banker and philanthropist who served as both the first president of Bellefontaine Cemetery and the first president of the Mercantile Library, which is now located in the lower levels of the University of Missouri - St Louis and is well worth a visit. He had a hand in so many charitable organizations in St Louis that there is not enough room here to list half of them. You can read more about him here.

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7. Joseph Charless Jr (January 17, 1804 - June 3, 1959) - I may have photographed the wrong Charless. I can't find my copy of the cemetery map at the moment. Oops. Joseph Jr was was a "prominent citizen" of St Louis, but beyond that it's hard to find details. His death was a Big Deal, though. He was killed by a bookkeeper, one Mr Joseph Thornton, whom he had testified against in an embezzlement trial. The newspaper clipping of the day is definitely worth reading. Newspapers certainly set a different tone back then. The more famous Joseph Charless is the Senior, who was the publisher of the Missouri Gazette, the first newspaper west of the Mississippi River.

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8. William Grymes Pettus (Dec. 31, 1794 - Dec. 25, 1867) - Missouri State Senator, Probate Judge and Secretary of State under Alexander McNair, the first Missouri Governor. One of the authors of the original Missouri Constitution. And a tidbit for Keith: He was also a Freemason.

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9. Captain James B Eads (May 23, 1820 – March 8, 1887) - Known to St Louisans as Captain Eads, designer of the Eads Bridge, the first steel bridge to cross the Mississippi River. Turns out he wasn't a Captain at all, but was in the salvage business. He designed a diving bell and special boats for the purpose of salvaging goods and sunken ships in the river, and got the nickname "Captain" from that business. He also built iron-clad gunboats that were instrumental in General Grant's siege of Vicksburg. His mausoleum is in the center. There seems to be another Eads to the left, but I can't read the marker on my screen.

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10. Probably one of the most recognizable mausoleums in Bellefontaine, both for its architecture and occupants. This is the Busch Mausoleum, final resting place of Adolphus Busch (July 10, 1839 – October 10, 1913) and Lilly Eberhard Anheuser Busch (? 1844 - Feb. 25, 1928). Adolphus was in the brewery supply business, and it was through his dealings with the Eberhard Anheuser & Company brewery that he met and married the daughter of Eberhard Anheuser (in a double ceremony with Anna Anheuser and Ulrich Busch!) Eventually Adolphus teamed up with his father-in-law to create the world famous Anheuser-Busch (later to become AB/Inbev, but we don't like to speak of that around these parts.)

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The Busch Mausoleum was built in 1915. It is done in a Gothic style, with walls of Missouri red granite and a roof of gray green slate. The vine patterns you can see at the bottom of the picture are hop vines.

That's probably enough trivia for one day! I think there are 47 points of interest on the map, so we will return to Bellefontaine a few more times in 2011.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Our Food Is Guaranteed Not to Cause Pregnancy

I'M BACK! The reason I wasn't able to blog the past couple weeks was because I was busy spending the holidays IN THAILAND. I've only been home a couple days and am still a bit jet lagged, so this one will be short. I'll get to the things that require more in-depth explanations in the coming weeks. I know that the majority of you are in the St Louis area, so rather than a month in a row of posts about Thailand, I'll be mixing it up throughout the next few months.

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So, we were out for a walk in Bangkok one night when we stumbled across Cabbages and Condoms. I'd heard about it from guide books but didn't realize how close it was to our hotel. Sounds a little odd, eh?

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Well, it is unusual, but it is also a really nice restaurant. The food was excellent, and they have an absolutely stunning outdoor patio. It's only when you look closely that you realize that many of the decorations are fashioned from multicolored condoms.

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sorry for the quality. I only had my cell phone with me but HAD to blog about this

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Why cabbages and condoms? The answer is surprising. Proceeds from the restaurant (and the Birds & Bees resort in Pattaya) support a program called Population and Community Development Association (PDA), a private charity founded by Mechai Viravaidya to promote family planning. Mechai believes that successful family planning programs must make contraceptives as accessible as vegetables in the market. Get it?

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These days, PDA has expanded their services to include community empowerment, environmental conservation, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, and water management and sanitation. The restaurant also has a gift shop that sells handcrafted items from Thai villages, and also offers massage services.

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Now for the "craves"! As I said, this was an impromptu visit and I didn't have my real camera or any way to take notes, so I'm kind of winging it with the help of their online menu. Here we have, I think, is an appetizer called Chaw Muang, which is minced chicken and onion dumplings. Yes, they are purple. Purple and delicious!

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The next one is called Kai Hor Bai Teoy "in herb leaf bikini", according to the menu. This is fried chicken wrapped in pandanus leaf. My mom gave it a thumbs up. My dinner was pad thai, which most of you are probably already familiar with. That was actually the only time I ate pad thai in Thailand. It had to be done.

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The menu at Cabbages & Condoms, as with most Thai restaurants, is extensive AND affordable. I think the most expensive meal on the menu was 350 baht, or about $12. Most appetizers are $3-4 and entrees $7-9. You generally pay more for a mai tai than a plate of pad thai in Bangkok.

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So if you ever find yourself in Bangkok or Pattaya, check out Cabbages and Condoms for a great meal that supports a great cause!