Product Description

I feel deep gratitude for the compassionate contribution that my friend and colleague, Michael Ramseur, has made to the memory of those thousands of souls who dwelled there in search of reclaimed sanity, and to the memory of their loving families and exhausted caretakers. Like no others before him, he has truly understood the whole enterprise, for better or worse, that was the lunatic asylum in Danvers. He has deftly recreated for us in this richly illustrated tome, a tribute to the all-too- human limits of that project in time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #218106 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 100 pages

Customer Reviews

striking art, sharp text
Ramseur's text is richly illustrated and textually sparse, which does strike a good balance regarding this particular subject, an (in)famous mental hospital. The work is certainly more of an artistic piece and impressionistic overview than a scholarly text. As such, it is successful, marrying surreal design and "snapshot" facts. He does draw on a lot of primary sources, such as reports from the hospital; this is a good thing, considering that these are sources the average public would not have access to. He also gives Danvers staff plenty of space to speak for themselves so that we can hear authentic voices.

The book definitely doesn't have a professional layout; the text, overall, looks like it comes from a normally cited college paper and not from a book. The text could have used an editor in spots; for instance, when I mentioned the Danvers staff getting to speak, it frequently follows the same formula of an interductory stub of a sentence, then a colon, then a very lengthy quotation, then the end of the text.

This is a work that is more felt than analyzed, though, and it does make a strong impression. I wavered between giving it 3 1/2 stars and 4, but I think that, between the haunting art and the brief, blunt text, I'll give it a 4. It is a little bit pricey, I thought.

Danvers State YHospital Review
The author both illustrated and wrote this paperback book. It is an excellent historical rendition of a Kirkbride mental asylum in Massachusetts. As a lifelong Massachusetts resident, I had heard stories about Danvers State and some of the things that happened there. The author describes a young girl who was admitted more than 50 years ago for "smiling too much"; these stories will break your heart. In the early 1900s, the patients farmed the land around Danvers State as therapy. The list of harvested vegetables in the book is fascinating to read. I would recommend this book if you are interested in the historical aspect of mental illness treatment, not that it's much improved today.

A History Captures in Pictures

Most people outside of Massachusetts think of ghosts and demons when they hear the name of Danvers State Hospital. The old brick building, now being torn down, is one of the paranormal hot spots of the state and the holy grail of investigations. In thinking about Danvers, too often the great tragedies that took place are thought of just as the cause of the disturbances felt today. The pain left by the people there, and the great stories of recovery, are lost among EVP's and EMF readings.

But the heart and soul of Danvers has been preserved by Michael Ramseur in his book, the Eye of Danvers. Told through historical records and first hand accounts, it chronicles the rise and fall of a place once considered the crowning jewel of the mental health system and now stands as a representative of all that went wrong with it. The hospital was more than stone and mental and glass. Danvers was built on people, some who suffered greatly there. Ramseur is able to convey the power of the emotion felt by those who called the institution home.

The ultimate power of the book lies in the breathtaking artwork of Ramseur. As an artist looking at the buildings and the people behind the walls for decades, he brings a unique view of the landscape and the inner emotion of the place. If the book had no words, his paintings would still connect the people, trapped in time, and the emotions they dealt with.

As they slowly replace Danvers State Hospital with condos and playgrounds, what happened there will be lost. The people touched, in a positive and a negative way, will slowly die off and their stories lost. All we will have left are written accounts, and The Eye of Danvers will be the complete record, told through words and pictures, of a history many want to forget.