Glore Psychiatric Museum

Well there is a reason that hotels advertise free wi-fi.. They want your money!  Of course what they don't tell you is that their Internet is slow as molasses and cuts in and out.  Thank goodness for mobile devices !!  Ill tell you about today and then try to post pictures at our next location!

We went to Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Mo.  Pretty interesting stuff if you can get past the creep factor.  Of course I had no problem with it.  Took lots of photos.  I did feel faintly ashamed of myself when I was looking at stuff and kept saying, "That's crazy".  Am I allowed to use the C word in a psych museum?  

Rocking Butter Churn - Pretty Ingenious!

They had exhibits from all parts of the museum.  Saw a rocking butter churn, didn't even know they existed.  Saw some way cool rocking chairs until I read the description of them.  

Thought these were way cool retro wise until I read they would drill holes in them so that the patients wiho were incontinent wouldn't have to sit in their own waste.  Ewwwww!

No toppling or throwing this chair!

All this in one person's stomach.  Yikes!

 They also had exhibits from patients that were really interesting and gave some insight into their lives, feelings and minds.  One of the most unusual exhibits was that of a patient that had pica (eating things that are not normally food).  She had consumed a large amount of nails, needles, thimbles etc.  They had to perform surgery and what they discovered she had eaten shocked them. 

I'm not exactly sure what the artist was attempting to say but the colors and the concept astound me!

I really liked the art work that some of the patients had done.  It spoke to me!  I posted my favorite two.

This one was from a patient who was sick and tired of being tired and sick. 

Not a fun chair! 

They had an entire exhibit on the history of psychiatric care... They had one chair they used to strap people in until they became calm.  While they were in said chair they would pour ice water over them. Put ice water on their head and boiling water on their feet.  I admit to not being a rocket scientist but I'm thinking my butt isn't going to be calmed by that!

Sometimes you just feel like a hamster....

They also had what looked like a large hamster wheel.  Patients would go in and evidently they would go round and round as well.  Which came first the human version or the hamster version?

I also didn't realize that electroshock therapy is still a valid treatment.  Evidently it's gotten much more sophisticated.  There were the expected items as well, shock baths, calming cages, lobotomy equipment etc.

Shields

Okay I'll leave a few surprises for you to discover when you go:). What I didn't realize about Glore was that it also houses a fine and interesting civil war museum and Indian artifact museum.  Loved the peyote fans and pottery.  Something I never considered was that Native Americans used shields and clubs.  I always attributed that to knights in Europe!  Now I know!

Club

Peyote Fan.. Love the colors

Shoes... shoes and more shoes!  okay Moccasins!

Lots of weaponry was shown for the Civil War as well as a few unique devices!

Cannon ball

Fork and knife fashioned for a one armed man.

There was also a doll exhibit which was kinda cool and a black archive exhibit that was kinda not cool. Basically there were warning signs up telling parents that they should decide if kids could handle the exhibits.  Lots of darkness with the history of slavery etc. There was lots of information and newspapers in this exhibit but not many tactile objects. I did snap a photo of a pretty cool banjo though. Never knew African Americans were the first to use it!  

Banjo