2QSQ #6 Discovering Primary Resources
Example #1: Mental Health Search within Wellcome’s Catalogue
There were a variety of artifacts under this search, such as mental health of twins, patient certificates and admission forms, private accounts, medical journals/weekly statements, case records of various date intervals, report & general statements of accounts, annual accounts/report & accounts, and out letters. Most of the artifacts came from either the Ticehurst House Hospital, which was opened by Samuel Newington in 1792 as a psychiatric hospital, and then the Mental After Care Association, which was founded in 1879 by Reverend Henry Hawkins – originally called the “After Care Association for Poor & Friendless Female Convulensencts on Leaving Asylums for the Insane.” For my artifact, I selected the “Patients’ Bills & House Account Settlements,” which came from Ticehurst House Hospital between 1811 and 1819. The images showcased a small book – looked a bit like a ledger – with first an alphabetical/address book type of format listing the names of individuals I assume to be patients and/or their guardians. These pages generally included names with an accompanying number corresponding to their bill/balance on the right side of the book. After about 30 pages in shifts, a detailed account of what each patient was billed for and that accompanying cost tallied up to a total sum. For instance, some contents included “new suit clothes…5.2”, “mending clothes…6” and so on with the name of the service or good and its cost. Another example listed items such as tobacco and wine, but also services like shaving. These accounts are organized under the name of an individual patient on the top, the year and date on the left side of the page, and the right-hand side is the cost of each item with a total on the bottom left.
As to the context, I picked this artifact because it is within some of the time frame of Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre that we have been discussing, which would have taken place within the narrative from around 1808-1820s and correlates to the period where Bertha might have been institutionalized. I also thought that the bills and accounts would provide detailed information on the living conditions within this psychiatric hospital from what they were being charged for. I feel this artifact can also speak to questions about what the conditions of other hospitals/mental institutions were like compared to this one, which seemed to have a very detailed and involved account of what was being billed. I also think we could look into who exactly was billed – was it from the money or account of the actual patient, or did they have guardianship status of other people such as family? I think this document would be important in discussions of Victorian class/social status and poverty concerning who had access to these institutions and what we can infer about the type of care corresponding to class. In the context of our novel, Rochester implies that the kind of institution he could have placed Bertha in was much worse than locking her in his own home with a personal attendant – knowing what we do about his wealth, how could this influence our discussion of this artifact and the type of care it implies.
Example #2: Retreat Archive
The introduction to this archive discusses how pivotal and influential the role of The Retreat was in the development and care of the mentally ill in Victorian England and that their work soon became a study case for the “typical” type of institution and though it kept its high reputation it was also able to become a more standard middle/class institution (this maybe ties into my questions in the previous artifact). The introduction also mentions that the archive is usually very complete, with well-documented detailed accounts of administration, finances, staff, estate, and patient records. For my artifact under this archive collection, I chose the “Admission Papers” from April 12th, 1842, to June 22nd, 1849, which again is part of The Retreat Archive. This artifact looks to be a printed leaflet with information regarding the admissions of patients into their care, a very detailed list of 29 questions in the style of an intake form, and an official signed document to admit the patient. This questionnaire contains information such as name, age, place of birth, last residence, marital status, children, occupation (previous), and any connection to the institution. I thought it was interesting that there was a section on this idea of a family history of mental illness, and it made me wonder whether or not that was actually a part of medical findings at this point. There was also a section of the questionnaire that focused on the details of their illness, hoping to gain information on their early afflictions, literacy, education, disposition, changes in temperament, fits, violence, and if any prior medications or treatments were given. Again, at the end of each form was a signed document of “The Medical Certificate,” which was signed and dated for the patient’s admission.
I think this artifact is important to discuss as, again, it is relevant to the time period of our current discussions surrounding Brontë’s writing, and I think it would be interesting to see what questions/information was needed to determine if someone was eligible to be admitted to an institution. This context makes me want to raise follow-up questions regarding what treatments and conditions these patients were in before this step of institutionalization was taken. Like in Jane Eyre, Rochester took notice of Bertha’s changes in attitude and behaviors, and much like this intake form suggests, he had an official diagnosis from a medical standpoint that found her to have a mental illness. It makes me wonder what was beneficial or how it became normalized to take these next steps medically – did this allow for more treatment other than institutions? I would consider this artifact important within the context of medical diagnosing in the Victorian era and the roles of guardianship and consent as we can start to question more within the artifact itself, such as who was filling out the forms on behalf of the patient, etc. The artifact can also raise our discussions to the context of class status again, as the information given would give us a glimpse into issues such as occupation, education levels, and marriage dictated heavily by social norms and class.
