Mary Todd Lincoln's Cell

[Susan Higginbotham]

Re. public insane asylums in that period photographing their patients - I wonder who paid for that (and I can't help it but finding 21$ or more expensive for one photo just for the files, even if you get a dozen of copies to file). Poor patients sure couldn't themselves.

I imagine the photographer was working on a contract basis or was employed by the government. Some photographs were taken by persons studying mental illness. The photographs are harrowing, but it's important to remember that for the most part, they were taken for scientific reasons (inclusion in textbooks, before and after studies, etc.) or for reports filed with the government.