A new addition to my collection

I found another gem for my collection recently, it's a postmortem picture of a child from Belgium.

Danvers State hospital, the King of Asylums

Danvers State insane Asylum was the king of the abandoned insane Asylums in the 80s and 90s, a huge hulk of a building oozing atmosphere and mystery.
People I've spoken to who were lucky enough to go inside the place have decribed it as the most beautiful building they'd ever seen. It's imposing tower, and 'bat' layout, with two huge wings stretching off either side comprising of wards and treatment rooms. Legends of the 'snake pit' where dangerous patients were kept, it must have been incredibly imposing.


Danvers is believed to have been the inspiration for the infamous Arkham Sanatorium from H.P. Lovecraft's "The Thing on the Doorstep" which was in turn inspiration for Arkham Asylum from Batman


Built in 1878 due to a high demand for beds, with other Asylums in New England over capacity and Mental patients housed in any beds that could be spared in other hospitals. Its location was extremely rural and 'out of the way' as with most Asylums. Its main purpose was to provide residential treatment for the mentally ill, Danvers expanded to include a training program for nurses and a Pathological research Lab, by the 1920s there were even school clinics to help determine mental deficiency in children. In the 1930s and 40s the Hospital was extremely overcrowded and there were stories of inhumane lobotomies, drugs and restraints being used to control the overrun population.


The population of the hospital was decreasing by the 1960s and as other methods of treatment and 'care in the community' were being used, this lead to the closure of Danvers in 1992 along with budget cuts to the mental health system.


The hospital holds a place in folklore for the locals, many believe it to be haunted and refer to it as the 'castle on the hill'. The History of the ground lends itself well to the paranormal, Jonathan Hathorne the most fanatical judge during the witchcraft delusions of Salem, who was responsible for the deaths of many innocent people, lived in a house which stood on the site of the hospital.
There are countless stories from people who claim to have experienced the paranormal happenings in the hospital site. The police and security kept the place in lockdown and it was always stricktly 'off limits' which made it an even more desireable a place for thrill seekers to try and visit.


"I don't know whether the feelings get trapped in the walls or the building - but they just stick there. There have certainly been enough bad things that happened there that it will stick around for awhile."
- Salem resident


" I just felt a very intense foreboding; you could feel there was a lot of pain there" - Salem Resident

Horror film 'Session 9' was filmed there in the 90s and actor Peter Mullan claimed to have heard someone wisper his name. and another crew member saw a figure walk past a window.


Here are some extracts from an interview with former Maintenance man Preston

J- What was the worst incident you witnessed involving a patient?
P-Back when they started dual diagnosis they transferred this 15 year old boy from Hogan to DSH. This boy had a habit of crawling into heat ducts. The heat ducts don't go anywhere at Hogan, it's a newer building and you can't get hurt. Anyway they sent him up and he was up there for about 3 weeks and he disappeared. We searched everywhere for him. We looked all over and we couldn't find him. The staff over at J ward started to notice a horrible smell getting worse and worse everyday. Anyway to make a long story short, he got inside the duct work in J Annex. The duct work in DSH goes right down to heating coils. He slid down , couldn't get up , got trapped and died. His feet landed right on the coils and literally burnt off up to his shins. I was there and had to go over there and help cut him out of the wall. There must of been 25 people in that room that day. The Medical Examiner, clinicians you name it. I cut the wall and Butch (The Tinsmith) was there to cut the tin duct work. When we cut through it all, and opened it up the kid was right there and looked almost frozen. The pathologist reached in to take him out and his hands sunk into his chest like jello.The smell was disgusting it was a nasty stench and we all got sick. His death brought on a major,major state investigation. His parents were mad as hell and rightfully so. We had big wigs from Boston and the State Police lab up there for weeks. It was just an horrible experience. I've seen a lot in my 24 years and that was by far the worst.


J-Do you know who was in charge of buring the patients in the past?
P-Horace Clark and his crew was in charge of burying the deceased. I remember a couple months after I started they needed me to build a wooden box for a patients leg that was in the freezer over in the morgue. They operated on this man and he died. They had a funeral for him and he was buried but they kept his leg probably for further research. He was buried for about a month before they buried his leg next to him. I remember feeling weird about the whole thing, it was sort of bizarre because I just started the job. The old carpenter Eddie Osborne calmed me down and said "it's just a box, you're building a box that's all" and I built it , Horace's crew picked it up and placed the leg in it and they went and buried it. To the best of my knowledge that was the last patient buried there.

J-What are your feelings when you hear the hospital being referred to as this snake pit and this haunted castle?
P-In all honesty, I believe that the patient care was better at DSH than some of these half-way houses that are around today. They had recreation for the patients, entertainment for the patients, movie theatre, dancing, arts and crafts. They also had what was called industrial chores and patients could work in the woodshops, work with leather, make furniture and the patients loved it. I'm not saying it was perfect because there was bad staff and bad things did happen but that goes on at every hospital and at every business you work in. It certainly wasn't a snake pit. The public wants to believe it was because it has that mystique and the architecture gives you that impression. I mean there were dirty wards. That's no secret. We'd refer to C Ward as Shit Ward because patients wouldn't keep their clothes on and they soil themselves. They'd hose them down but it's not like what you read in books with staff blasting them with a fire hose with ice cold water and whipping them while being hand-cuffed together. That's just absurd. They'd hose them down to get the feces and urine off of them but it wasn't abusive. For the most part, the staff loved their patients. They'd bring them special treats, take them out for rides and take home for dinner. I had this patient by the name of Byron over in this very house many times for dinner. Byron worked with me for years and you get to know these people and care for their well being. We had patients sobbing in tears when they were closing the hospital. It was their home and didn't want to leave. Overall, the hospital was a good place and the staff did an excellent job with what they had.

-Read the full interview here


Danvers was eventually demolished and turned into flats, named Avalon Danvers, the site, it seems has continued to have a bad atmosphere. Part way through the construction there was a mysterious fire that destroyed a lot of the building.
There have also been numerous complaints from residents of the flats of awful management, noisy flats and badly maintained apartments.
It seems that site in Danvers will never be free from bad press.

Visit the Danvers Hospital website for loads of pictures and information

Autumn

I'm feeling abit sad that Halloween is over, it's my favourite time of year, and this year was the best Halloween i've ever had, I spent the day having a tour round Highgate cemetery, such a beautiful place.
I managed to get some pictures, unfortunately just phone snaps but they capture some of the atmosphere of the place.
I adore the stone angels and there are so many of these adorning Highgate cemetery, rising from the undergrowth, reaching for heaven.

A rather beautiful Gothic style vault in the Egyptian circle here, belonging to Carl Rosa and his family, Carl Rosa was a German musical impresario who founded the Carl Rosa Opera Company in 1873. His is one of a number of Gothic style vaults lining this pathway.

Another Beautiful monument in the west cemetery is this Sleeping Lion, his name was Nero and he belonged to famous menagerie exhibitor George Wombwell, Nero was a docile Lion, it is said children used to climb all over him.

This is one of my favourite tombstones in Highgate, a sleeping angel, lying amongst the leaves and vines

All the vault doors in the cemetery are decorated with Inverted torches symbolizing life extinguished, another interesting detail is the keyholes on each vault are also inverted.

1. Silently, silently
   They are laid to rest,
   Free from care, over there,
   Dwelling with the blest.
   They shall bear no more life’s burdens,
   Sickness, sorrow, death, or pain;
   In that spirit-land they’re waiting,
   Where with Christ their souls shall reign.

New French Post Mortem

My second birthday present from my parents was a lovely little French Post Mortem Cabinet Card (I chose it) its a small sized card, and I love it, its so delicate and beautiful.

Here I am holding it so you can get an idea of its size, I went through a phase of the bigger the better with the photos I was buying, but I'm getting much more interested in the little ones recently. There's something so fragile and delicate about the small ones that is so beautiful. I have another one this size and they look so lovely together, a good quality image in this size of cabinet card is just unbeatable! 

Here is a scan of the full thing, as I've mentioned it's from France, the child is posed outside judging from the wall behind. He or she has the typical 'death curl' in the hair and the face is just heartbreaking and slightly spooky. This poor child looks so fragile in death, hopefully this photograph brought some comfort to the parents and helped preserve the child's memory.

Birthday Tintypes

I got some lovely little tintypes for my birthday, they came from America, I do adore American Tintypes.
They are all children, two of them feature 'hidden mothers' where a parent had to hide just on the edge of the shot to hold a baby still for the picture, mine just feature an arm and side of head, the best hidden mother pictures have the whole figure draped in black fabric, it looks incredibly spooky.

Here they are in my hand to give an idea of size, they're very small and delicate.

The first one features a baby being held up by its mothers arm, the rest of her being out of shot. I love the way the baby is slumped in the chair in this one, makes it look quite weird. A lot of uneducated people online would say this was a postmortem picture (like they do about any slightly spooky looking photo from this era) but this was in fact a common way of trying to keep a baby still for long exposure times, as were stands with a neck holder for adults, this isn't holding up a corpse but just a way occasionally used to help keep subjects still for long periods.

This next one is beautiful, the detail is so lovely, it features the child's father holding her up with a fabric draped arm, you can see the side of his head in the image, this was originally hidden behind a paper mount.

This third one I thought was just lovely, the child looks so sweet just sat there with a funny face, he or she had done a good job of sitting for the picture as it doesn't look anyone is holding them up.

Disfigured

I was sorting my old bureau out and I found an unfinished piece of work from years ago, I must have not liked it at the time and shoved it in the bureau, but on seeing it again I loved it and really wanted to finish it.

This was what I had to start me off, I got my super fine liners out again and got to work on it.
I'm really happy with the results, seeing as I haven't done any drawing in way too long

Glasseyes Top 5 Graves

Someone on twitter recently linked me to an article featuring top ten graves, possibly from the Guardian or something similar, and I just had to do my own.

I have decided to do a top 5 and possibly another 5 some time in the future to spread it out abit, the majority of the photographs here are not mine, as I have only photographed one of the graves myself, I would love to visit the US ones for myself. 

Here we go.

5. Jays Grave

The story behind Jay's grave takes place at the turn of the 18th century near Dartmoor in Devon, Jay was an orphan girl taken into a poorhouse as a baby and given the name Mary Jay or Kitty Jay.

She was taken on to work at a farmhouse on the edge of Dartmoor where she fell in love with the farmers son and became pregnant. The farmers son and his family refused her and he denied any involvement, she was turned away from the farm with no where to go. 

With her only prospect returning to the poor house Mary Jay took her only other option and was found hanged in a barn in the surrounding countryside. 

At the time suicides could not be buried on consecrated ground and were buried at crossroads to prevent their soul returning to haunt the living.

Mary 'kitty' Jay was buried at an intersection of a country road and the grave was known as Jays Grave.

Locals say that in the years following her death a figure could be seen on moonlit nights kneeling at her graveside with head in hands. The identity of the figure was never determined but until this day fresh flowers regularly appear on the grave although no one has ever been seen to place them.

The story inspired a song by folk musician Seth Lakeman

4. Julius Beer (1836 - 1880)

I have visited Julius Beers beautiful mausoleum in Highgate Cemetery, London twice now and it really is stunning, Julius Beer was born in Frankfurt to a poor family, he traveled to London to try and make his fortune and dealt on the Stock Exchange, later becoming the proprietor of the Observer Newspaper. Beer felt ostracized by Victorian society for being Jewish and a foreigner, he had his tomb built on the highest point in Highgate so he could be above the people he hadn't felt had accepted him in life.

                                         Photo by John Gay for English Heritage 

The reason this grave has made it onto my list, as well as Beers interesting life, is the beautiful statue inside, which is a memorial to his daughter. The statue depicts his daughter being taken to heaven by an angel, she had died before her father. The statue was done by Hugh H Armstead.

The first time I visited we could only peek through the keyhole to the interior but on my second visit, the guide unlocked it and we could go inside. I have read somewhere that the likeness of Beers daughter in the statue was copied from her death mask.

My Boyfriend took these photos on our visit to Highgate, pics by MessyVignette

 

The stunning ceiling

                                         Photograph copyright - Evissa 

3. Timothy Clark Smith (1821 - 1893)

Timothy Clark Smith was a Doctor from Vermont who suffered from a fear of being buried alive, there were many stories in the Victorian age of people being buried alive and this must have been a real fear for many people. Before modern advances in medicine it was possible to be pronounced dead and buried whilst merely in a coma.

Timothy died in on Halloween 1893, he had designed his tomb to be built so that a cement tube ran from directly above his face to the surface, with a piece of glass covering the opening, creating a window down to where he lay. This window still remains in Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven. 

it is only possible to see a couple of feet down due to condensation, the condition of the glass and darkness. There are stories, more likely urban legends, from many years ago, where people have claimed to have been able to see Dr Smiths skeletal face through the window. It was also reported that a hammer and chisel were seen next to him, to aid his escape should he wake up. The story goes that he was also buried with a bell to ring should he wake up, I guess we'll never know weather he was really buried with these items or not.

                                                                                              

2. Florence Irene Ford (1861 - 1871)

I have posted an entry on this blog about Irene's grave before, but my top ten would not be complete without this beautiful story. I will do a brief recap if you are not familiar with Florence.

Florence died of Yellow Fever aged 10, during her life she was terrified of storms and needed comfort from her mother whenever there was a storm.

When she died her mother was so grief stricken, she couldn't bear the thought of her daughter alone in her grave during the storms she so feared.

She commissioned Florence's coffin to be built with a window at the child's head. The grave was dug with a tiny room at the same depth as the coffin next the head, this little area had steps leading down to it, so that Florence's mother could go down whenever there was a storm and comfort her daughter. To shelter the mother, metal trap doors were put at the top of the flight of stairs. The grave, doors and stairs down still remain in Natchez City Cemetery, Mississippi  but a concrete wall was built to cover the coffin in the 1950's to prevent vandalism.

1. John Garmston Hopkins (1857 - 1871)

Here is another grave I have recently posted about on here, but this is by far my number 1 grave, I think because I'm such a visual person and the photograph mounted into this grave is absolutely beautiful. This is also in a church very close to where I work, in Worcester UK, so I feel even more of a connection to it.

I recently went to photograph it and a little further down my blog you'll find more photographs of it.

When John Garmston Hopkins died aged 14 in Worcester, his father, a Hop Merchant in the city, commissioned a monument to be made including a photograph taken after the boys death which is mounted into the stone beneath thick glass.

The monument stands in the porch at St Johns Bedwardine Church in Worcester, and it a beautiful, tragic memorial to the young boy.