This museum is located in the Old Administration Building of Tewksbury Hospital on East Street.  It is on the first floor. 

Visiting hours are:

• Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. by appointment.  Call 978-851-7321, ext. 2606 for information or to make an appointment.

The Hospital was established in 1852 as a state almshouse to care for the poor including a growing number of immigrants.  It became the Tewksbury State Hospital in 1900, the Massachusetts State Infirmary in 1908 and Tewksbury State Hospital and Infirmary in 1938.  Today, it is known as Tewksbury Hospital.

The tour of the Public Health Museum consists of:

• The reception room
• The Superintendent’s Office
• The mail room
• The garden room
• The classroom
• The hospital room
• The dental office
• The mural room

The Reception Room (a brief description)

Through the front door of the Administration Building you can see the expansive hallway.  The entrance to the museum is on the right.  Inside the office is an early 1900’s roll-top desk used by the Superintendent’s Administrative Assistant.  There are several boxes and containers on the desk from the early 1900’s.  The typewriter dates from the late 1930’s or early 1940’s. 

There is a switchboard in this room originally used at Cushing Hospital in Framingham when it was a Veterans’ Hospital.  The back half of this room displays historical public health figures in Massachusetts.  The long display case was once used to hold the bones to teach anatomy to medical and nursing students.

The Superintendent’s Office (a brief description)

The Superintendent’s office has a typical circa 1894 fireplace used at that time as the main heat source.  A clock on the wall was programmed to ring at different times during the day and throughout the hospital to signal opening or closing times.  The focus of this room is probably the large superintendent’s desk that was made at Lakeville Hospital in its carpentry shop.  In some institutions the patients worked in carpentry shops as a source of occupational therapy and made such things as chairs, picture frames, desks and bookcases.  There is a Commonwealth of Massachusetts flag in the superintendent’s office.  It was the last flag to fly over Rutland Heights Hospital, the first tuberculosis hospital in the United States, before it closed around 1990.  There is a panel display in the middle of the room showing early 20th century pictures of Tewksbury Hospital and its patients.  There is a collection of patient medicine bottles on display in this room.

The Mail Room (a brief description)

The museum currently uses this room as space to store rare books and other small artifacts.  At one time, however, the room was the mail room for the hospital and was the place where everyone met and exchanged information.  There is a huge fireplace in this room.

The Garden Room (a brief description)

This is a small room with French doors that look out onto the hospital grounds.  The room is currently used as a museum office area.  It had a variety of uses over the years such as:

• Office for the Medical Director
• A Waiting room for the Superintendent’s office

Some of the furnishings in this room came from the superintendent’s residence that is visible outside the French doors.  All the hospital’s superintendents lived in the residence from the 1890’s to the 1950’s.  The residence is now called the Annie G. McDonald House to honor Ms. McDonald, Director of Nursing at the Hospital for over 40 years.

In this room is an aerial view of the hospital grounds used by the architects and planners in the 1930’s.  At one time the grounds were surrounded by a wall or the buildings were connected to each other as were most institutions of its kind were in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  There was also a labyrinth of underground tunnels connecting the buildings.

The Classroom (a brief description)

These are series of small rooms set up as models for a variety of functions.  One is a school of nursing classroom and looks like any classroom from the 1920’s and 30’s.  On the wall hangs a picture of Linda Richards, who was the first graduate nurse in the United States, and Annie McDonald, former Director of Nursing, done shortly before her death. 

The Hospital Room (a brief description)

This small room is a typical hospital room of the 1920’s.  The metal beds were high off the floor and required a footstool.  Patient’s supplies were the bare essentials.  There are medical instruments typical of the era, and a woolen nurse’s cape that was given to a student nurse as part of her uniform.

The Dental Office (a brief description)

Resembles a typical dentist’s office from 1905

The Mural Room (a brief description

The Mural Room completes the tour of the Museum of Public Health.  It is a spacious room that was once used for formal receptions for visitors to the hospital.  It was painted by artists who worked under the auspices of the Federal Arts Project program during the Depression of the 1930’s.  The murals depict local industries and farming endeavors.  There is a large map of Massachusetts on the wall painted in the mid-1930.  The room is also used for special exhibits.

Among the permanent exhibits are:

• The History of Public Health Hospitals
• Pioneering Public Health
• Hansen’s Disease (aka Leprosy):  A Feared Infection
• Public Health/Mental Health

If you are interested in America’s historic psychiatric hospitals (state hospitals, insane asylums) founded mostly in the latter half of the 19th century, The Public Health Museum in Tewksbury, Massachusetts is a good example to visit.  The hospital itself is still in operation.  A large proportion of these historic institutions are no longer psychiatric hospitals.

The Old Administration building of Tewksbury State Hospital was constructed in 1894.  It is a Queen Anne-style building situated at the head of the original main entrance drive on East Street, marked by a circa 1900 granite and wrought iron gate.  The building was designed by Boston architect John A. Fox. 

Anne Sullivan was a patient in the almshouse during the 19th century.  She later became the tutor and companion of Helen Keller. 

The Old Administration building and the Tewksbury Hospital campus were placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in January of 1994.

Source:  The Public Health Museum in Tewksbury, Massachusetts Online

Written by:  Connie Limon.  For more information about the history of, visiting and living in Massachusetts visit:  http://smalldogs2.com/VisitingMassachusetts  To submit articles and find a variety of FREE reprint articles visit http://www.camelotarticles.com

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© 2007 Connie Limon All Rights Reserved