Summary
Pair of cream canvas boots, size 9, with black laces. Worn by a patient before 1950 at Aradale Psychiatric Hospital. Aradale Psychiatric Hospital was built as the Ararat Lunatic Asylum between 1864 and 1867, and is important as a record of the changing approaches to the treatment of mental illness in Victoria - from institutional confinement to treatment and rehabilitation.
Much of the Museum's Psychiatric Services Collection was assembled during the 1950s by Dr Charles Brothers while he was working within the Victorian system to bring about reforms. Dr Brothers' investigations uncovered the institutionalised poverty and lack of hope resulting from decades of government and community neglect. The texture of daily life in an impoverished and overcrowded institution is evoked by well-worn domestic objects, battered metal chamber pots and standardised clothing.
Physical Description
Pair of cream canvas boots, size 9 with black laces, and leather soles and standard heels.
Significance
Example of uniforms worn in mental health hospitals in Victoria, Australia prior to 1950
More Information
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Collection Names
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Collecting Areas
Medicine & Health, Public Life & Institutions, Clothing & Textiles
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Acquisition Information
Donation from Office of Psychiatric Services, May 1985
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Place & Date Used
Aradale Mental Hospital (Ararat Asylum), Victoria, Australia, pre 1950
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Inscriptions
Aradale. 18.10.1967 written inside top of boot Dunlop written on heel
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Classification
Medicine & health, Mental health - institutional life, Clothing
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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overall dimensions
28 cm (Length), 19 cm (Width), 16 cm (Height)
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Exhibition Collection Management
272 mm (Length), 97 mm (Width), 153 mm (Height)
dimensions are for each boot
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Dimensions
27 cm (Length), 10 cm (Width), 16 cm (Height)
Measurement From Conservation. Measuring Method: each boot
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References
Oral history
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Keywords
Hospitals, Mental Health, Mental Health Institutions, Psychiatric Services, Making History - Psych Services