Picturing the Patient: Photography in Surrey Hospitals, 1850-1960 - Zoom Talk

Picturing the Patient: Photography in Surrey Hospitals, 1850-1960
Wednesday 8 October, 5.30pm to 6.45pm on Zoom

Surrey had many psychiatric and learning disability hospitals, and their archives inform our understanding of historic attitudes to mental illness, epilepsy, and a wide spectrum of learning disabilities. Medical case notes telling the personal stories of thousands of people, young and old, who were admitted to these vast institutions are often accompanied by a photographic portrait of the patient, bringing us face to face with a person long dead through the emulsion held in negative on a fragile glass plate or sepia image captured on paper. Often taken on admission to the hospital, we see them at a particularly vulnerable time in their lives and their gaze both challenges and resonates with us through shared emotions and experiences. They are an important resource for the history of asylum photography, shedding light on the history of mental health, the social background of patients and the approaches to care and treatment provided by different institutions in Surrey over more than a century.

Tickets: £6.
Please book a place online at https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/culture-and-leisure/history-centre/events
Once payment has been received you will be sent the Zoom joining information shortly, or next working day if booked in the evening/weekend.

You may also like the following events from Surrey Heritage:

• Next Thursday, 14th August, 02:00 pm, Let the Road Rise to Meet You: Tracing your Irish ancestors - Tea and Talk with Jane Lewis in Woking
• Next month, 3rd September, 04:30 pm, Virtual Tour Behind the Scenes at Surrey History Centre - Zoom Talk in Woking
• Next month, 9th September, 02:00 pm, Schools of Thought: Education Records for Family Historians - Tea and Talk with Jane Lewis in Woking

Also check out other Health & Wellness events in Harvard, Nonprofit events in Harvard.