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Gallery: Professionalization

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An engraving depicting a long building with six wings of 3 floors and a 4 story central section with a dome and extensive grounds.
Title page, edited by the officers of the New York State Lunatic Asylum, Utica.
Dramatic formal portrait of a white man, head and shoulders, front pose, with his signature below.
Formal portrait of a white man seated at a desk with an open book; glasses on forehead; thoughtful pose.
Mid-19th-century compilation portrait of 176 members, all men.
A person is sitting in a chair; his body is immobilized by straps at the shoulders, arms, waist, and feet; a box-like apparatus is used to confine the head. There is a bucket attached beneath the seat.
Formal photographic portrait an older, bearded, white man, seated, wearing glasses.
Lithograph of head of French soldier facing right with brain exposed.

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A person is sitting in a chair; his body is immobilized by straps at the shoulders, arms, waist, and feet; a box-like apparatus is used to confine the head. There is a bucket attached beneath the seat.

The Tranquilizing Chair of Dr. Benjamin Rush

Benjamin Rush believed that mental diseases were caused by irritation of the blood vessels in the brain. His treatment methods included bleeding, purging, hot and cold baths, and mercury, and he invented a tranquilizer chair and a gyrator for psychiatric patients. He published many medical papers and gave medical lectures to physicians and students.

Wood engraving, “Observations on the Tranquillizer” in The Philadelphia Medical Museum, 1881.