Blog - History

Observable evidence was thought to be crucial in documenting changes and determining recovery so drawings and later photographs could be valuable tools. The cas

Stray advertisements from the Journal of Mental Science.

The story of Bethlem’s four sites having been told in earlier posts to this thread, the Archivist now turns his attention to the siting of the other hospitals f

We're pleased to announce that the Bethlem Archives & Museum will be starting a new oral history and photography project, focused on the twentieth century hospi

Hear the latest in our discussions about the portrait photographs of patients taken by Henry Hering in the 19th century.

In the late nineteenth century, “insanity of adolescence” became a frequent feature of psychiatric texts.  Find out more in this post.

Hear the results of our survey about photographs in the new museum.

We continue our look at Bethlem's changing locations.

Lectures and conferences are all very well, but space, time and financial restraints often prevent us from getting to as many as we'd like. Step...

Following on from our previous post, we now consider what the game of billiards meant to patients.

This month we look at the gaze of the sitters in Henry Hering's series of photographs of patients at Bethlem.

Here's the first in a short series looking at Billiards at Bethlem.