Personal Collections

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. April 29, 2024, 11:39:51 AM 1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever Login with username, password and session length

I started collecting when romping through state hospitals but lost most of it due to personal struggles, what i was able to hold onto i cherish-  i started to collect other historical (usually med/psych related) stuff mostly just through buying/trading and never really get to show it off.....soooo   

Imagine getting a dose of Paraldehyde each morning to keep the DT's away!  I knew a couple old-timers who have since died who experienced this at BSH or Charles Street Jail.....they said it was awful, but knocked you right out and you'd sleep for hours....Apparently it comes out of your body mostly through your lungs so when your came out of the Paraldehyde stupor your breath would feel like you drank ether!

I also collect old Pharm ad's...some are absolutely hilarious-

The largest part of my collection is my Pharm Bottles- ive acquired some pretty amazing one's and will try to keep up with posting.... you name the old drug and i probably have a bottle- some are quite rare....  some still have the contents too- hence the kinda sketchy seal on this one....

Here is a couple favorites of mine..... the first one is exceedingly rare- i was lucky to be able to get a hold of one. If it were in pristine condition it would be worth a few thousand....maybe more to some pothead, who these days..., with the lucrative legal pot business are willing to pay a fortune for old cannabis collectibles. At some point it had got turned on its side and some of the tincture leaked out and coated the label which hurt the value quite a bit..... there is actually still some tincture in it but it is mostly a tar like goo- yes it does smell a bit like weed! (hundred year old weed) very slight...... i figure this might be a favorite of our esteemed deggi5 founder!     

The second bottle is quite possibly a fake but im not positive.... Its definitely an original bottle, but am not sure of the label- It could be a reproduction or just an outright fake- Im trying to find old hawk drug catalogs but thats near impossible

If you got a little too burnt out from all the weed tincture a hundred or so years ago your could take some of this...which was given for mostly anything- it was also one of the first performance enhancing drugs and Pep pills known. Several sports players (19th/early 20th century) got themselves in trouble for abusing this a little too much- both by there leagues and also their bodies.

If Corona has you in its grip...then i got the cure!! This was given for just about everything up until the the mid 20th century but primarily used for syphilis-   Ironically it is still used for very specific forms of cancer today!!....... i mean after all a broken clock is right twice a day....

I started collecting when romping through state hospitals but lost most of it due to personal struggles, what i was able to hold onto i cherish-  i started to collect other historical (usually med/psych related) stuff mostly just through buying/trading and never really get to show it off.....soooo   

I remember peeling that james gang picture off the wall in the hobbs room @Salt

Circa 2001'ish is was still hard to find a copy of Titticut Follies- ever since i found out about the rambling castle like structure of BSH in the late 90's i was obsessed with it- so naturally when i got a chance to finally view the film it grew my obsession even more. I remember back then having to go to Emerson College and use there library viewing room- i cant remember who i went with though.... i think it may have been Danoneson and maybe the stoot...not sure-   This just grew my obsession even more...., but sadly i never made it in..., nor do i think many people but the bravest explorers have considering where you're going..... i have a bunch of cool historic BSH stuff ill share over time in this thread- some of you may have seen it but some not

Now that its so easy to obtain a copy, i wanted to get an autographed copy from Frederick Wiseman himself while hes still alive- luckily they're based out of Cambridge..., so i emailed over and asked if i dropped by (or could one be sent) if he would sign a copy- his secretary (or possibly) wife said NO! he would only sign anything at public appearances and he does only a few a year and there not always announced.... i said oh well.

About a week before Christmas months and months later (must be around 2013/14) i got a envelope in the mail. Since i had left my address to see if they could possible send me one, the secretary (or probably wife) remembered and sent me one as a Christmas gift! On the back of the top portion (which is an index car embossed with Zipporah Films) it says Merrry Xmas- and the bottom is an autographed copy of the 'new style' dvd sleeve- which i put into a frame together.   I was wicked happy and surprised- one of the best Christmas gifts ive ever gotten!!!!   

here's a fun one for some of you rockstars, its a little faded- a true 8ball!

And if you think a little bigger and are more of a Keith Richards type (like i used to be) this might suit you better-  The big Brother!

I know many of us could have used this over some of the ish we spouted on forums in the past.....

I love it cannabis extract! I have seen this kind of stuff the old bottles that your showing here out west they have them all over Virginia City preserved away this is really awesome stuff! Thanks for sharing.
LR

Since ive had the "joy" of being an inmate of the commonwealth (a former me) ive always enjoyed collecting pictures of jails and prisons that no longer exist or have been changed radically-

the First two are of the old Charlestown State prison which was torn down to build Walpole State prison in the mid 50's. This prison was very old even by then and decrepit- a lot of history happened here... i.e Sacco and Vanzetti...Jesse Pomeroy.., Malcolm X..., and Charles Ponzi of which the Ponzi scheme is named after- True legends of the criminal underworld!

If you look closely in the courtyard picture the small square trailer looking building is where the death chamber was- the electric chair used was eventually moved to the Walpole Prison and apparently is still in storage there to this day....- according to prison lore....  Both pictures are original press photos- the courtyard picture dates to the 1940's- the side view to the 1920s

Here's one of the Old Concord reformatory- Most of the original "reformatory' which has quite a history was torn down and a newer prison was built- a few buildings are still original but most all is completely different- Its surprisingly hard to find out much about when this took place, but if you were to drive by MCI Concord today it would not resemble this at all-  I have a few other photos stored away someplace in my collection and will try to dig them out at some point.

Here's a reproduction copy photo of the Charles Street jail from the 50's-  who would of thought it would be one of the most priciest hotels in the city these days..... Some of my old timer friends would tell me how awful that place and the only good thing about it was the high doses of paraldehyde to sleep the day away- Apparently the "flats" (bottom tier) were the worst where all the drunks and junkies got put

Here's Another original photo of Angola in Louisiana- Not Massachusetts but this dates to the 1930's if i remember correctly- (i dont wanna take it out of the frame to read the exact press date stamp)

One of my biggest personal regrets of my UE career was missing out on going into the Salem jail- being from the area and having a few uncles who did time there and told me more stories than i can remember about this place i was always in awe driving by it- Sadly by the time it became 'safe' to venture into i already had enough of my own personal problems and i never made it (i was busy making it into active jails for other reasons lol)-

  these days i have a pretty cool picture collection of Salem Jail pictures from yesteryear and when i get around to it ill start digging them out and showing them off...... oddly enough my uncle was one of the last inmates transferred out when they opened the Middleton Jail- He had also been in the Lawrence jail back when Essex county had two jails- I have a few pictures of Lawrence jail but they're harder to find and usually just postcards-   this is an original press photo and if i remember correctly its from the Salem news circa early 70's

I guess I have some regrets while I am still exploring everything I really want to check out is gone or been leveled like certain state hospitals. No less disappointing that some I just missed by days.