Morriset Hospital was designed to feel more like a hospital and less like a jail for its patients and staff. With its lovely bushland setting and manicured gardens bounded by an expansive lake, most patients were free to roam the grounds in their leisure time, communing with nature. And despite the lack of guarded fences, […]
A pair of moccasin slippers, a latch hook rug and a set of wire clothes pegs—what do they have in common? They were all handmade by patients at Morisset Hospital. From its inception, Morisset Hospital was planned to be a largely self-sufficient community—boasting a farm, gardens, a fishing boat, boot maker’s workshop, a busy kitchen, […]
If you had visited Morisset Psychiatric Hospital in the 1930s you may have met Jean Pursehouse wearing this standard-issue nurse’s uniform—a long-sleeved, blue-denim dress, with white buttons and collar. On the long shift from sunrise to sunset, nurses like Jean rolled up the stiff sleeves of these, heavily starched, hardwearing uniforms to get on with […]
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