At Home in the Institution

The Uses and Misuses of Television in Long-Stay Psychiatric and "Mental Handicap" Wards, 1950s-1980s

“…Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people were still living on long-term wards, which were "home" for many. The domestic character of these wards can be traced back to the mid-19th century when homely effects were intended to have a "civilizing" influence on patients' behavior (Hamlett 2015). The ward was a place of containment where patients were categorized and managed according to the levels of "care" they were believed to need.…”

Material Cultures of Psychiatry

“…Even if not explicitly, studies since the 2000s on the asylum's architecture and landscape offered references to the material turn Material Cultures of Psychiatry by taking the materiality of the institution as their starting point and showing that "psychiatric hospitals were potent forces in the treatment of mental illness" (Yanni 2007: 7;Topp 2017;Hickman 2009;Topp et al 2007). Historical archaeology and the archaeology of institutions have made an important contribution to the research by focusing on the material conditions of institutional life (Hamlett 2015;Beisaw/Gibb 2009;Piddock 2007). Not only built space was studied, but sensory phenomena such as sound and sight and their material effects have also been explored, pointing to the relationship between material culture and sensory perception (Kearin 2019(Kearin , 2020Fennelly 2014;MacKinnon 2003).…”

“…The latter is particularly evident in restrictive facilities such as psychiatric hospitals, which are characterized by a reduced world of objects. Thus, as historian Jane Hamlett (2015) shows, inmates of closed institutions generate "material subcultures" and adapt objects, materials, and spaces according to their needs (cf. Ankele 2009).…”

The Expansion and Remodelling of the London Hospital by Rowland Plumbe, 1884–1919

“…78 The allocation of a small individual bedroom to each nurse ensured privacy, one of the values of middle-class domesticity and a commodity that was perhaps increasingly expected. 79 Hamlett has observed that private rooms in residential colleges and schools were 'often cherished and carefully arranged', with objects representing the occupant's identity and aspirations. 80 A photograph of a sister's bedroom at the London Hospital depicts a cosy space with trinkets, portraits, flowers and chairs for small gatherings (Figure 12), but, as no other images of nurses' bedrooms have come to light, it is not possible to establish whether it is a typical example.…”

“…81 Points of arrangement in the nurses' homes at the London Hospital also correspond with Hamlett's observation that 'material structures and spaces [in residential institutions] were powerful forces for control'. 82 The construction of covered bridges, the provision of visiting rooms, and the distribution of sisters' bedrooms indicate that a degree of surveillance over the nursing staff was enshrined in the planning of their residences.…”