The blog for the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York.
Written by Alexandra Medcalf The York Lunatic Asylum opened in 1777, at a time when little was understood about mental illness. Without organised institutional care available, families were left to deal with the mentally ill at home as well as they could. It was usual to chain lunatics to the walls and to leave them naked (it … Continue reading The York Lunatic Asylum Scandal
We are finishing off the series of Tuke work experience blog posts with an entry from Alex and Martha who looked at some views of York, and the Tuke house. We start with some views of York from Alex One of the most interesting items I have had the opportunity of handling this past week … Continue reading The Tuke Work Experience Project: Views of York
This week we continue our Tuke themed blog posts with a look at some of the poetry found in the collection, written by one of our work experience students, Rebecca. You can catch up by reading Part I here. Studying personal documents from the early nineteenth century, I inevitably found myself looking out for glimpses … Continue reading The Tuke Work Experience Project: Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Bonaparte?
Between April 15th and April 19th 2013, the Borthwick enlisted the help of a team of Work Experience students to help us work through the large collection of Tuke material that we hold. Part of their remit was to pull out interesting documents from the collection to form a series of blog posts. This week … Continue reading The Tuke Work Experience Project: Growing up with the Tukes