11/5/2013
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
The Glore Psychiatric Museum is a very interesting little museum in a former mental hospital in Saint Joseph Missouri. Both the museum and St. Joseph are worth visiting. I've never been to a museum quite like the Glore. The Glore offers a generally compassionate overview of the treatment of mentally ill people throughout history. Historic "medical" practices such as "kicking and stomping the patient" are represented with Barbie dolls in small wall mounted dioramas. Other treatments are represented by full sized store mannequins in straight jackets or receiving electroshock therapy etc. A few of the rooms seem almost like interpretive art installations. I've visited twice. The first time was in 2002. Most recently I was there in summer of 2013. The museum has gained a lot of notoriety over the years and often appears in odd roadside attraction type guides. As a result, it's not nearly as empty of visitors as it used to be but it still isn't crowded. The museum has a good amount of interesting and more typical exhibits covering psychiatry in addition to the Barbie/mannequin stuff. Attached to the Glore are the very interesting Saint Joseph Black Archives which are several rooms chronicling the history of the African American population of Saint Joseph.
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Looking for the Glore Museum can be slightly confusing. Street atlases and local maps refer to it as the Saint Joseph Museums. It's on Fredrick Avenue around a mile west of Interstate 29 on the South side of the road. The museum is adjacent to an operating mental health/prison facility. Once you're in the parking area signs clearly point to the Glore.
>Glore Psychiatric Museum website.
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Removed from a patients stomach at The Glore Psychiatric Museum
Pouring water on Barbie at The Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
Kicking and stomping the patient at The Glore Psychiatric Museum
Glore Psychiatric Museum
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