Photos telling their story

Time to resurrect Way Back When. This one comes from researching Asylum Records - the Victorian Asylum Records for 1853-1940. The records are from PROV (Public Record Office Victoria) and are now available via Ancestry (which makes for easier searching).

In general, the patient records include:

• the patient’s name
• the dates of their admission and discharge
• spouse’s name and profession
• who and why patient was admitted
• basic details of their history (age, place of birth, current residence)
• details of their illness or disability
• patient case books (one page or more of notes on patient)
• date of death  (if they died in the asylum)
• some records include a photo (many don’t).
• Admission warrants 
• Patient registers 

PROV has this statement: The language used in these records can be distressing or offensive.  The terms used to describe health (e.g. ‘lunatic’) reflect the attitudes of the time and may not represent current day understandings. and it is not only the language, but the reports themselves that may not represent current day understandings. Looking back, we can use more modern interpretation of symptoms and the diagnosis on some who were "cured" only to be re-admitted at a later date with worse or more advanced illness. Many of these were long before terms like post-natal depression were invented.

The patient record that quiped my interest was one from Ararat, the Aradale Asylum. It had photos! As they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, this one or all three speak to you.

The January 1908 admission photo is of a 27 year old who was admitted suffering sun-stroke. He was discharged 10 months later, healthier and cured (very few Discharges have photos). However he was re-admitted 2½ years later in May 1911, still apparently with the same suit but looking drawn. The record for the re-admission is very brief and it looks like he was released after just 12 days.

Aradale

Like the prison or criminal record photos, these asylum photographs serve to portray these people as 'real people'.