Search the collections

Boots - Dunlop, Canvas, Prior 1950 Reg. No: SH 850581

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.
Description:: Pair of cream canvas boots, size 9 with black laces, and leather soles and standard heels.
Acquisition Information:: Donation from Office of Psychiatric Services

Discipline:	History
Dimensions:	16.00 cm (Height), 19.00 cm (Width), 28.00 cm (Length)

Tagged with:	hospitals, mental health, mental health institutions, psychiatric services
Themes this item is part of:	Psychiatric Services Collection, Disability-Related Collections at Museum Victoria, Psychiatric Institutions of the Past, Medicine in Society Collection, Public Life & Institutions Collection, Clothing & Textiles Collection
Primary Classification:	MEDICINE & HEALTH
Secondary Classification:	Mental Health - Institutional Life
Tertiary Classification:	clothing
Inscriptions:	Aradale. 18.10.1967 written inside top of boot Dunlop written on heel
Place & Date Used:	Aradale Mental Hospital (Ararat Asylum), Victoria, Australia, pre 1950
References:	Oral history