Today marks the 185th birth anniversary of Dr Thomas Clouston, Physician Superintendent of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum (1873-1908). LHSA holds Clouston's paper as part of the 'Physician Superintendents of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, c.1850-c.1980' collection (GD16). A number of drawings were found amongst these papers, which may have been sent to Clouston as indicative examples of mental illness. They are certainly a window into patients' perspectives on mental health care of the late 1800s.
Andrew Kennedy (1825-1899) was a patient at the Glasgow Royal Asylum and other Scottish hospitals in the second half of the nineteenth century. Thirty-four of his drawings are held within the papers of Dr Thomas Clouston, who was physician superintendent to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital.
The drawings typically represent matrons or doctors, but also include birds, fish and cows. They were all drawn on small scraps of paper, often accompanied by writing and offer a rare insight into the patient experience. A selection of these drawings was loaned to an exhibition of British Outsider Art at the Halle Saint Pierre, Paris from March to September 2008, and again in 2010 for the Talbot Rice Gallery exhibition 'Drawing for Instruction'.
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