The Advertisement Archive I

An envelope was recently sent to the Archives & Museum containing a small sample of mental hospital and psychiatric drug advertisements published in the Journal of Mental Science (the forerunner of the British Journal of Psychiatry) in the 1930s and 1940s. Such advertisements were commonly printed at the front and end pages of professional journals. Though the Journal of Mental Science is now available to consult online, the front and end matter of its mid-twentieth century issues have not been digitized, so advertisements like these can only be consulted in libraries that retain print copies of the Journal.

Until now, that is. There is no place in our holdings here at the Archives & Museum for an ephemeral collection like the one that has been sent to us. But we have decided to publish images of these stray pages here on the Bethlem Blog. From now until next June, we intend to show you one each month: hospital advertisements in 2013 - starting today with Holme Lacy in Hereford - and drug and other treatment advertisements in 2014.