Voyerisom Comes at a Painful Cost

These outstretched porcelain hands are casts of the artist’s own. They hold jumbo souvenir shillings that feature a faded portrait of the asylum proprietor and year of asylum visitor entry on the obverse and hospital exterior and word “souvenir” stamped on the reverse. London’s famed Bethlem Royal Hospital found a novel way to raise funds. For a shilling, the public was invited on weekends and holidays to visit and gawk at the unfortunate souls inside. Amusement and curiosity lured 96,000 yearly visitors.