The Asylum in the Long Nineteenth Century

This volume is concerned with Lock Hospitals and Magdalen Asylums in England in the nineteenth century, focusing on rare and difficult-to-access published and/or archival material. The introduction to this volume contextualises sources, addresses the state of the field, discusses language and highlights key themes such as gender, social class and religion. The text is organised around five sections: Lock Hospitals, Magdalen Asylums, medical and reform texts, Acts and legal texts, and newspapers and journal articles.

Besides some of the archives for these institutions, the sources also contain archival and primary sources related with ideas about prostitutes and fallen women, legislation, philanthropy work and nineteenth century voluntary associations and organisations. Accompanied by extensive editorial commentary, this volume is of great interest to students and scholars of the history of medicine and the history of gender and sexuality in the long nineteenth century, as well as with the history of institutions to contain and control the sexually “deviant”.