Off and on over it’s 150 year history the administrators of the Oregon State Hospital have felt sufficiently safe and cosy to allow patients at the hospital to write, draw, type, publish and distribute their own newsletter. A newsletter about patients for patients.
Well not in our lifetime, but it did happen. Long long ago.
Here is a sweet sample of two newsletters; the early 1960s “Lamplighter” and the “Tarrytown Tattler” which apparently ran through the 1940s. (We love the idea of calling the Oregon State Hospital, a highwalled prison for just about anyone a judge wanted to throw in there, “Tarrytown”. I’m not imprisoned; I’m just tarrying. In Tarrytown. With all the others who tarry.
Take a look at the PDF reproductions below. Note the fine quality of art-typing done to illustrate and demarcate the pages. Quite a time-intensive talent.
A large collection of these patient-created newsletters is at the Oregon State Archives. This small set came in to our hands recently and is being sent to the archives for preservation.
OSH Tarrytown Tattler January 1943
OSH Tarrytown Tattler February 1943
OSH Tarrytown Tattler March 1943
OSH Tarrytown Tattler June 1943