u/UnheimlichNoire

I just joined Reddit, and I've always wondered about that. I consider myself someone interested in Chernobyl, though I don't know as much as people who have been into the subject for years.

Mary Ann Cotton, one of Britain's first known serial killers lived in this house, which seems to have combined two houses with one of the doors unused.

Mary Ann Cotton is thought to have murdered approximately 21 people, mainly her own children, but also husbands and lovers. Her weapon of choice was Arsenic. Her killing took place in Cornwall, Sunderland and in County Durham. It was from this house in 1872 that she was taken to jail and from there in 1873 to the gallows, where she was executed by hanging.

The building next to my house used to be a Co-Op grocery shop. As well as a conventional front door it also had this now bricked-up back door up a removed set of stairs (the diagonal bricks in picture). My house was built in 1874 as the dwelling for the shop manager. Where my coal shed is now was apparently a very small meat slaughter house.

I should really find a use for it

I got another reproduction death mask of L'inconnue de le Seine - the Unknown Girl of the River Seine. A drowned girl pulled from the river in Paris and never identified, so the story goes.

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As she was the basis of the face of Annie the first-aid training resuscitation doll, she has the most kissed lips in the world.

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This is my third of these masks and probably the last. I have an antique (late 19th early 20th Century) yellowish lacquered one from France, a vintage (1950s/60s) terracotta one from Germany and this is a modern British white plaster one. It's a studio second so I got it a lot cheaper than a perfect moulding. I got extremely lucky for prices on all of them.

People dying of burns from their clothing igniting because of materials and/or fashion styles in Victorian/Edwardian times were shockingly common; which gave the already very busy chemists of the era another challenge in developing less incendiary materials.

Dr Perkin's Non-Flam patented in 1910 was a safer alternative to the highly flammable material flannelette which was frequently used for night attire.

I would like a collection of postcards of psychiatric hospitals but most of them aren't particularly cheap. So I was really pleased to get one of Mendota for an extremely cheap price (including over-ocean shipping!).

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Mendota would probably be my most wanted - it's the heart of the archival book and documentary Wisconsin Death Trip, both of which I adore. It's also where the killer and grave-robber (and the rest) ended his days after capture and conviction.

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Other associated postcards that would be on my most wanted would be Salem Oregon State (the inspiration for the asylum in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - another book and film I love), Danvers Massachusetts (inspiration for Lovecraft and DC's Arkham Asylums), Royal Bethlem London (Bedlam) and my local old asylum Winterton, Sedgefield (that was shut down and replaced by modern facilities a decade or two back).

Starting with the Voices.

Just thought I don't own any asylum artefacts. (Except a postcard from Mendota I will post separately).

I did buy my girlfriend a vintage lobotomy tool and a small brass funerary urn plate (for use in a psychiatric hospital's own crematorium but it is not engraved with a name so is unused) - who said romance is dead? 😉

Tempted to start on other walls.

In there are anatomical replicas of skulls of Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man), a Peruvian elongated skull, the Cheddar Gorge Man (prehistoric possible murder victim and reportedly cannibal), a skull with bone cancer and an infant skull with adult dentition above the gum line, I also have a miniature replica of the 2 headed boy of Bombay I need to put in the cabinet (all those crafted by Carnivore Studio - the creator of which is a member of this group) plus two other anatomical replica skulls, one of which has the parts numbered for academic reference. I also have several real animal skulls but no room for them in there.

(The second photo was a mistake shot but I added as I quite like it).

Classed as mildly toxic but will give you a purge from both ends. So pretty though.

Must be some change in soil pH or something as this year they have grown in pink whereas other years they've been darker, sometimes more purple.

At a slight tangent but of interest to folks with a thing for toxicology and macabre medical stuff. A history of dangerous clothing, cosmetics and so forth. Illustrated throughout with some great images.