Glore Psychiatric Museum - Saint Joseph MO - Mental Health Strange Glore

Although the museum earned even higher marks in its old building, even at the newer digs the Glore Psychiatric Museum in Saint Joseph still regularly makes the lists of places to see before you die, world's most unusual museums, and strange but true sights in America. Featured on a number of national news reviews, the museum keeps daily hours year-round.

The Glore Psychiatric Museum is the collection of a single man, George Glore, who spent his life as an employee of the Missouri Department of Mental Health. He worked at State Lunatic Asylum #2, which later was more charitably called St. Joseph's Mental Hospital. Throughout his career, he collected some of the implements that were used in his time and from earlier years to treat the mentally ill.

The collection documents more than 130 years of mental health therapies, along with displays documenting some of the stranger displays of mental illness witnessed at the hospital. There is a display of nearly 1400 items a patient had swallowed, along with numerous tales of things so strange they must be true. Staff are fonts of knowledge and can be addressed with questions throughout the visit.

The museum is now three stories. It was originally housed in the mental hospital, but after patient numbers dwindled the hospital became a prison and the museum moved out as well. George Glore retired in 1996 but still advises the museum on his creation. Admission is low, with lower rates available for large groups.

Visitors spend varying amounts of time in the museum depending if they find it intriguing or disturbing. Children are welcome but if they are sensitive the museum may be a bit much for them. Mannequins are used to model patients throughout the museum and the effect is memorable. Medicine has come a long way, and visitors will come away with much to consider and think about as they leave.