the lemonadey ways in which the world is so incredibly weird ~

[lookingland]

in a bid to unearth the most impossibly obscure documents ever summoned at this particular liberry, i am attempting to get my hands on this little bit of bizarre (innerliberry loan has been good to me so far!). it would be very interesting just in terms of asylum care in the 1880s, let alone that mitchell and hartranft were on the commission that slopped it together. prolly dry as coprolite, but hey, i've read weirder/worse.

exhibit A:

Hartranft, John F., Richard C. McMurtrie, Joseph A. Reed, S. Weir Mitchell, Joseph T. Rothrock, L. Clarke Davis, and George L. Harrison. Report from the Commission to Examine into the Present System for the Care of the Insane of the State, etc. Philadelphia: The Commission, 1883.

it would have never even occurred to me in a million years, in spite of the fact that both of these men are pennsylvanians, that they would ever be on a commission for anything together.

i have not pursued much on the matter of hartranft's post-gubernatorial position as a warden for crazy people. it's sort of out of the range of my interest in hartranft. but i might get interested. especially since steers is ruining my other angles (kidding).



for my own amusement, this is an insane asylum
from Mr. Hanty's hometown.
i don't believe he ever worked here.

Comments

[romanticizing.livejournal.com]

Gahhhh your entries make me miss history research (and ILL) SO MUCH. :/

I would totally read that report.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahaha ~ some days it's more voyeurism and spurious extrapolation than research, but even so it's too much fun.

i wish "trivialist" was a lucrative occupation.

: D

[romanticizing.livejournal.com]

I would totally be a trivialist. Oh man. I think I should add 'historical voyeur' to my list of occupations, that's such a good word for it.

My friend keeps saying I should be a history professor and I have this vision of me giving a seminar on Roscoe Conkling's wardrobe or something. (Cutaway coats! Ice cream trousers!!)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hahahahahaha ~ i was just transcribing the testimony of David Reed, who talks all about John Surratt's wardrobe in very meticulous detail (he wore "drab"; it's a light country cloth and it doesn't have any other name), but then he can't really remember anything about his face or hair. very funny trial moment.

: D

i prolly shoulda been a history professor too. but i prolly would have been too silly for it.

[romanticizing.livejournal.com]

Hahaha -- that sounds completely wonderful! Someone got a little distracted..

I love the descriptions of 19th century clothes, though. Everyone always talks about Roscoe Conkling wearing these totally bizarre combinations of colors--like red waistcoats and yellow striped cravats and green pants and I just think it's a cruel joke all I have are these black and white photos of him.

I had a moment of 'what am I going to do with my life?' earlier this year and considered going to school for history for about a half second. I am sure that would be a complete failure. I know in the scheme of things the big things are important but I get too carried away by minutiae..

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i think people forget, looking at all those sepia tints, that peeps were really into some garish color combos! red green yellow was pretty popular.

minutiae is the best!

: D

[romanticizing.livejournal.com]

I must have no imagination, because I never see red green yellow in black and white photos. Thank goodness for newspaper reporters who felt duty-bound to inform the nation of the Senator's clothing choices--hahaha. Someone has these amazing clothes somewhere, I'm certain of it :(

It's 4 in the morning here and I am having the best time with all these history discussions. I so miss all this! (I must confess I have The Unlocked Book out from the Kensington Library at the moment--so happy to find it here!!)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

holy cow, i forgot about the distance across the pond!

but i admit, all of this has been keeping me up these past few nights as well ~ hahahahaha.

definitely certifiable on some levels.

amazed that the unlocked book is there as well ~ or maybe not. they lived in a england a spell, i suppose.

: D

[romanticizing.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the time change works in my favor some of the time because I stay up late a lot. Usually not as late as last night though :)

Oh of course they were in England, well, that makes more sense now. I should find out where they lived and try to go there or something. I've brought the book with me to Prague now--Asia on tour hahaha.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

you should find out where Junius and his first wife lived too, while you're at it ~ i guess they were all from pure-blood English stock, after all, no?

: D

[sparowe]

Now I find myself wanting to research the history of the place....

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

asylums are skeery ~ ! but oh so fascinating.

i'm always curious and then i immediately don't want to know because you just know that no matter how humane some people might have tried to be, they must have been monstrously nightmarish places.

i actually have a hard time imagining hartranft running a loony bin. a prison, yes. maybe that just adds to the creepy factor.

: o p