Asylum Sounds: Music and its uses in British Asylums during the Nineteenth Century. (360G-Wellcome-108497_Z_15_Z)

The relationship between music and medicine in nineteenth-century Britain is currently unexplored. Existing historical studies suggest that musical activity was common in asylums, whether as part of socialisation or moral treatment. Support is requested to fund a series of archive visits to explore the nature of musical activity in British asylums c. 1800-1900, both documenting the nature of activity (asylum balls, ad-hoc music making, choirs and bands, concerts, etc.) and investigating ideas an d discourse surrounding music's therapeutic properties. Archives will cover both private and public institutions, chosen due to known musical links or a particular reputation for moral treatment: York Retreat, Norfolk, Bethlem, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Holloway Sanatorium and Brookwood. I will investigate asylum records, reports and accounts to trace the uses of music in each institution. I will situate archival findings in my primary and secondary researches to date, drawing on a wid e range of material to begin to uncover the debates surrounding music and mental health during this period. This will later feed into engagement activities involving both academic colleagues and the Museum of the Mind, and a larger project on Music, Health and Happiness in Nineteenth-Century Britain.