Summary
Handmade onion planter made by patients at a mental health hospital in Victoria, Australia, circa 1890. It would have been used in the garden of a Victorian mental health hospital.
Physical Description
Garden onion planter has ladder-shaped wooden handle set at 45 degree angle and wider at top. Wooden chassis made up of intricate network of blocks, shafts and fencing wire tapering slightly to front. There are 3 iron-rimmed four-spoke wooden wheels - 1 in front and 2 on the sides. In the centre is a round drum around another wooden wheel, turned by bicycle chain round cog on axle and inside right-hand side-wheel. Between drum and handle is onion holder - narrow based, open box with floor, galvanised iron sides, hinged plywood back and drum as front wall. Outside of drum has diagonal rows of wire spikes every 16cm.
More Information
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Collection Names
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Collecting Areas
Medicine & Health, Public Life & Institutions, Sustainable Futures
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Acquisition Information
Donation from Office of Psychiatric Services, May 1985
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Place & Date Used
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Inscriptions
595 written in pencil on plywood in onion holder. "P" stamped on plywood in onion holder. (part of brand name from container wood was taken from).
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Classification
Medicine & health, Mental health - institutional life, Gardening
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Category
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Discipline
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Type of item
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overall dimensions
183 cm (Length), 44.5 cm (Width), 76 cm (Height)
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Exhibition Collection Management
490 mm (Length), 1915 mm (Width), 758 mm (Height)
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References
card with exhibit. Oral history, Dr E.C.Dax, 4 May 1992
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Keywords
Agriculture, Occupational Therapy, Psychiatric Hospitals, Making History - Psych Services
