Early Photography : West Riding Asylum, Menston, Yorkshire.

Early Photography

<p style='text-align: justify;'> Album of 32 gelatin silver prints, the majority in a warm brown tone with a high gloss (some overall yellowing) mounted side-by-side in pre-cut grey mounts and fully titled in ink on the mounts. The album is annotated in ink on the front endpaper 'T. O’ Conor Donelan, Menston Asylum. Leeds. Nov. 12. 1901'. Dr Thomas O'Conor Donelan was a medical officer at the Asylum before moving to Middlesex County Asylum in 1905, he died of pneumonia in 1914. Originally known as the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, but variously referred to as, The Third West Riding County Lunatic Asylum or simply Menston Asylum; it was later named High Royds Hospital. Designed by the architect J. Vickers Edwards and completed in 1888, it was set in a 300-acre estate within the metropolitan borough of Leeds. Photographs are of the building and its interiors, including some studies showing the male and female inmates engaged in work or recreation activities. </p>