Customer Reviews

Angels in the Architecture: A Photographic Elegy to an American Asylum (Great Lakes Books)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The somewhat haunting photographs of the interior of the asylum makes one try to imagine how life was for those souls who lived there. The beautiful architecture of those majestic buildings and well-manicured grounds is a testament to an era of compassion. There is one photograph in particular that caught my attention, on page 185 that has what appears to be a ghostly image of a man standing in the doorway of room 50. A book you can look at over and over again and see new things in the detailed photographs.

This book should be required reading in Psych 101 classes. Photography classes as well.

The author gently uses her camera and prolific writing style to tell a story that both inspires and shocks you at the same time. There are incredible amounts of patient and staff histories both touching and surprising. The book inspires one to ponder the life of each person profiled.

One can only hope that Johnson continues along the same lines and creates another masterpiece like Angels in the Architecture.

As a former employee of this hospital, I give this book my stamp of approval. It is a great history because it is told through the voice of people that were there and their stories brought memories flooding back to me. I laughed and I cried. The photographs reminded me of everything that happened at this place...good and bad. It is masterfully crafted book...the photographs are amazing...the stories are riveting and more importantly, true. I have read everything printed on the history of the former Traverse City State Hosptial and this is far and away the most informative...I thought I knew all the history but Miss Johnson revealed facts and details I never knew...the research is terrific.
I am so happy a book like this was finally published and I am honored to have it in my collection.

I just ate this book up! I didn't want it to end. I want to know more about the thousands of patients and employees that were there...so many fascinating stories about those lives...please do another book Ms. Johnson! I especially love the nurses "Hattie and Eunice" and the list of their work duties in the late 1800's was fascinating...nurses today have it easy by comparison. Great photos! I am going to visit this place as soon as I can

"Angels in the Architecture" is a first-rate homage to a former asylum, the Traverse City State Hospital of Michigan. Heidi Johnson has masterfully combined her hauntingly beautiful photographs with both archival material and first-hand reports from the trenches. The result is a powerfully compelling journey into the soul of a once vibrant institution that provided care to thousands of its wards.

I was excited to receive this book as a present as I lived in Traverse City for several years and visited the grounds of the state hospital where the photographs from this book were taken quite often and have a great interest in the architecture of Thomas Kirkbride. I was especially hoping to be able to finally see the inside of Kirkbride's Building 50 (one of the most complete Kirkbride main buildings still standing), the gothic building that graces the cover (the building was closed and inaccessable while I lived in Traverse City). While there are photographs of the buildings on the ground prior to their recent conversion as multi use/mixed housing, most of the photographs were reprints of historic photographs, not the lovely work of Heidi Johnson and the pre-renovated buildings. There also were many pages of just words without any photographs (while the detail of the first 20 deaths of patients is "interesting" I would have enjoyed Ms Johnson's work a bit more). I was also a bit dissapointed by the size of the book. It appears to be a coffee table book but is quite a bit smaller. All in all, the book is quite lovely but for someone interested in the Kirkbride asylum architecture this book was disappointing.

One of the most fascinating books I have ever read. Historically accurate, beautifuly presented, enlightening, compassionate... Wonderful.

This is a beautiful book. Ms. Johson's photographs and interviews put in perspective the story of early American psychiatric care, warts and all. It's as much a book about institutional architecture as it is the story of institutional psychiatric care. It not only tells the story of the institution, but it's impact on the people of northern Michigan. The interviews alone are worth the price. The photographs are stunning. Thank you Wayne State Press for giving this talented artist the opportunity to tell an often unspoken (and misunderstood) story of American history.

Miss Johnson shows the humility, the kindness, and insight: All three traits imbibing her as the Professional photographer of The Traverse City State Hospital. She has done justice for those gone; future generations shall grasp a better understanding of the hollow halls of antiquity.

As books on American asylums come, this is a solid effort. It is visually complelling and rich (if not quite as stunning as Christopher Payne's "Asylum") and its content is informative, detailed and also touching. The photos and the stories and statistics that accompany them provide a fascinating account on the everyday life the people led in this asylum, and on the buildings that inhabited them. My only compaint would be that the book is black-and-white, and relatively small in size.