This is sort of a continuation on my post about Mary Lamb and mental health care in Regency England. I snooped around online and found some great websites, for anyone who might like to know more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem-Royal-Hospital (this just gives a little more history on Bedlam, a link to their modern museum, a few pics)
http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/~pcraddoc/places.html (some cool maps)
http://www.iwm.org.uk (The Imperial War Museum website–their building incorporates what is left of the original Bedlam, which I thought was fascinating, though I’ve never visited this museum)
http://www.bedlampk.com (I searched all over the web for a good pic of those statues, and only found one here, of all places, at the Bedlam Asset Management website. It’s a cartoony pic, but you can see sort of what they looked like. Not sure I would let this company manage my assets, though…)
http://bms.brown.edu/HistoryofPsychiatry/bedlam.html (more Bedlam history)
Some Mary Lamb stuff:
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LAMBTALES.HTM (Tales from Shakespeare)
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/pic/bl_p_mary_lamb.htm (a pic of Mary as an old woman)
And, just because I feel like it, http://www.theorlandobloomfiles.com
Have a great weekend!
I’ve also been reading stuff by and about the Lambs, Amanda. I love their non-ton urban milieu and their brainy friends. The most recherche item to come my way, thanks to My Husband the Wild and Fearless Researcher, is a play called The Coast of Illyria, by Dorothy Parker (yes, the might-as-well-live lady). Wonderful scene with the Coleridge and de Quincy making like drunk intellectuals at the Algonquin. The title of course, is from Tales From Shakespeare — in Twelfth Night, a brother and sister are shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria. Heartbreaking.
Is that a sarcastic “thanks a lot,” Megan? 🙂
Pam, I also got the sense that the Lambs’ life was very “Algonquin-y”, with their poetic friends hanging around at all hours of the night, smoking and drinking and debating all sorts of fascinating topics (as well as having meltdowns)! I wish I could have been there…