Mary Keighley, a patient at the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, Wakefield, Yorkshire. Photograph attributed to James Crichton-Browne, 1873.

  • Crichton-Browne, James, 1840-1938.
Date:
[1873]
Reference:
35156i
Part of:
West Riding Asylum, Wakefield, Yorkshire: photographs of patients.
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About this work

Description

A woman, looking upwards with her mouth slightly open, identified as Mary Keighley, from Bradford. She was admitted to the West Riding Asylum in May 1863 as a thirty-two year old married mill hand suffering from mania. According to her case notes, "She is very restless and cannot sleep at night roams about the house all day talks all sorts of nonsense. Says she sees the Catholic Bishop with woman up stairs and other men with various women all which are false." In Mary's case notes her photograph is dated 1873. Mary would spend the rest of her life in the Asylum. She passed away in June 1896 and was interred at St Peter's Parish Church, Stanley. -- records in the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield, Yorkshire, identified by David Scrimgeour, op. cit.

Publication/Creation

Wakefield : West Riding Asylum, Photographic Studio, [1873]

Physical description

1 photograph : photoprint, albumen ; sheet 9 x 5.5 cm

Lettering

Chronic mania Lettering hand-written in black ink on mount

References note

David Scrimgeour, 'Wellcome Library's "Anonymous patients" become proper people', David Scrimgeour blog http://www.davidscrimgeour.co.uk , 22 September 2016

Reference

Wellcome Collection 35156i

Creator/production credits

The photograph may have been taken by James Crichton-Browne (1840-1938), the medical superintendent at West Riding Asylum 1866-1876. Crichton-Browne sent a similar set of photographs to Charles Darwin in or around 1869

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