Emma Page, a patient at the West Riding Lunatic Asylum, Wakefield, Yorkshire. Photograph attributed to James Crichton-Browne, 1873.

  • Crichton-Browne, James, 1840-1938.
Date:
[1873]
Reference:
35142i
Part of:
West Riding Asylum, Wakefield, Yorkshire: photographs of patients.
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About this work

Description

A young woman wearing her hair in ringlets, identified as Emma Page from Lockwood, near Huddersfield. She was admitted to the West Riding Asylum in May 1866 as a thirty-six year old widow. Emma suffered from delusions. She believed that all her food was poisoned, and that persons, including her brother, would enter her locked house and steal her documents and valuable property. The Queen of England and the Emperor of France were going to ensure that she took possession of large properties which she had in India and America. This photograph of Emma was taken in 1873. Her case notes also contain an undated picture of a much older Emma. She was still wearing her hair in ringlets. She remained in the Asylum until her death in July 1911 from tuberculosis. She was 81 years old. -- records in the West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield, Yorkshire, identified by David Scrimgeour, op. cit.

Publication/Creation

Wakefield : West Riding Asylum, Photographic Studio, [1873]

Physical description

1 photograph : photoprint, albumen ; sheet 9 x 5.5 cm

Lettering

Mono-mania of pride Lettering hand-written in black ink on mount, and continues on verso: "The Empress of Great Britain"

Creator/production credits

The photograph may have been taken by James Crichton-Browne (1840-1938), the medical superintendent at West Riding Asylum 1866-1876. Crichton-Browne sent a similar set of photographs to Charles Darwin in or around 1869

References note

David Scrimgeour, 'Wellcome Library's "Anonymous patients" become proper people', David Scrimgeour blog http://www.davidscrimgeour.co.uk , 22 September 2016

Reference

Wellcome Collection 35142i

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