Dining Hall, Asylum, from "Ackermann's Repository"
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Hamill and Barker
Accession Number
1961-105-228
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Research in Progress
Art Historical Context
Thomas Rowlandson, a prolific British caricaturist and (1756–1827), captured the stark interior of the *Dining Hall, Asylum in this 1808 print fromAckermann's Repository of Arts*. Published by Rudolph Ackermann, the Repository was a celebrated monthly magazine that showcased finely detailed engravings of, fashion, and public, blending education with visual delight for Regency-era audiences. Rowlandson's offers a glimpse into institutional life at the dawn of the 19th, when asylums like London's Bethlem Royal Hospital housed the mentally ill amid growing public fascination—and sometimes voyeuri...