37 Haunting Portraits Of Patients In Victorian Lunatic Asylums

The mental asylums of 19th century England housed the criminal, the insane, and the unwanted. These are their portraits.

The Victorian Era ushered in several significant changes with regard to medicine and the treatment of the ill. Shifting political mores brought forth increased investment in public health institutions — one of which included the lunatic asylum, a product of the nascent medical practice of psychiatry.

Though intended as a refuge for the sick, the asylum operated more as a correctional institution than a treatment facility. This perhaps stemmed from the fact that not just the ill resided in the site: as prisons became overcrowded, criminals often carried out their sentence in the asylum, while others used the institution as a dumping ground for unwanted dependents.

Given the need to generate funds in order to maintain the burgeoning medical institution, the asylum used its residents — sick, criminal, poor — as revenue sources. This culminated in the general public paying to visit the asylum, creating a circus-like environment for those in treatment.

Below, we look at the striking portraits of those whose lives were confined to the brutish mental institutions of Victorian England:

Harriet Jordan, admitted in 1858 and diagnosed with acute mania.Museum Of The Mind

Captain George Johnston, admitted in 1846 with mania and charged with homicide.Museum Of The Mind

Asylum patient, name unknown.The National Media Museum

Esther Hannah Still, admitted in 1858 and diagnosed with chronic mania with delusions.Museum Of The Mind

John Bailey and his son Thomas Bailey, both admitted in 1858 with acute melancholia.

Asylum patient, name unknown.The National Media Museum

Eliza Camplin, admitted in 1857 and diagnosed with acute mania.Museum Of The Mind

William Thomas Green, admitted in 1857 and diagnosed with acute mania.Museum Of The Mind

A criminal inmate at West Riding Asylum is restrained while photographed.Europeana Collections

Unidentified female patient diagnosed with acute mania.Museum Of The Mind

Unidentified female patient admitted with chronic mania.The National Media Museum

Eliza Camplin, admitted in 1857 and diagnosed with acute mania.Museum Of The Mind

Asylum patient, name unknown.The National Media Museum

Asylum patient, name unknown.Museum Of The Mind

Unidentified woman admitted to West Riding Asylum with chronic mania.Europeana Collections

Eliza Josolyne, admitted 1856 and diagnosed with acute melancholia.Museum Of The Mind

Eliza Josolyne, photographed again in 1857 in convalescence.Museum Of The Mind

A patient at West Riding Asylum diagnosed with "mono-mania of pride," a condition where an otherwise sane patient suffered from partial insanity due to a singular pathological occupation.Europeana Collections