Electroshock Treatment Record

This is the first document in the Arkham Sanitarium Project that I find genuinely disturbing. There's something deeply unsettling about the contrast between the neatly delineated rows and columns of a simple paper form and the physical violence of the procedure, even in it's most well meaning therapeutic incarnation.

It goes without saying that electroshock therapy (ECT) is controversial to this day, but I once again want to point out that H.P. Lovecraft's portrayal of Arkham Sanitarium was almost unfailingly positive. This particular piece of prop paperwork should be used sparingly unless you're going for the darker, grittier version of the sanitarium developed by later authors.

Electroshock was rare in the classic era of the 20's and 30's and highly experimental. Real research into the procedure wouldn't happen until the mid 30's, and it wouldn't see widespread adoption until the 50's. A treatment plan would begin with low voltages, the administered shock steadily increased until the patient went into convulsions. After that each session aimed to produce a seizure of at least 15 seconds duration and patients could undergo multiple treatments in a single day.

Voltages ranged from 70-450 volts, duration from .10 to .20 of a second.

You can download the full PDF from Google Documents over here.

The Second Miskatonic Australian Expedition

Godspeed, John Cmar. Hopefully this expedition to Australia will turn out better than the first.

Arkham Sanitarium Letterhead

This is an example of the letterhead that would be used by the Sanitarium's administrators for any outside correspondence. The PDF includes an embedded typewriter font (the excellent "Chunk Type" from John Bruce) so the form can be filled out before printing. You can download the full PDF via Google Documents over here.

The address of the Sanitarium on East Derby Street is based on Gahan Wilson's interpretation of Lovecraft's original hand drawn map of Arkham. The street number (345) is taken from Butler Hospital in Providence (345 Blackstone Boulevard). Butler was the place where both of Lovecraft's parents were treated and it was a major influence, if not the direct inspiration, for Arkham Sanitarium.

The telephone number draws on John Singleton's excellent research into conjecturally accurate exchanges for the classic era and later. "1893" is the year Lovecraft's father began his stay at Butler Hospital.

Cthulhu Fhtagn! Orphan Edition

Artist "Holy Orphan" brings us this Cthulhu idol cast in bronze. The depiction is pretty close to Lovecraft's sketch of the infamous idol from "The Call of Cthulhu".

Arkham Sanitarium Admission Questionnaire

Another prop document from Arkham Sanitarium, this time an admissions questionnaire. This two page form is based on vintage examples and contains a series of questions asked of patients and/or their families when they were admitted to a mental hospital. You can download the complete PDF from Google Docs over here.

This rounds out the core of the prop documents for the Sanitarium. By selecting from the various bits of paperwork you can tailor your prop presentation to the occasion, maintaining a high immersion factor while controlling your time investment. At the most basic level you can use the 5" x 8" Record File card as a quick and easy way to convey information and clues. A step up from that is the Patient Admission Form , perhaps dressed up with an off the shelf file folder. You can kick that up a notch and recreate a complete patient file by adding the questionnaire below, a Commitment Warrant and accompanying Certificates of Insanity, a patient Clinical Chart , and correspondence from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Diseases.

There are more documents in the pipeline to dress things up, but they'll be building on the foundation of the existing materials.

From the Wasteland

After staring at period medical forms for hours last night I desperately needed a break. That's when I stumbled across these fantastically detailed props from the "Fallout 3" videogame created by Elvis Alexander.





They're certainly not Lovecraftian, but every time I see something like this I start thinking about doing an entire set of period food labels for the "At the Mountains of Madness" expedition.

Arkham Sanitarium Update

I just wanted to give a quick update on the status of the Arkham Sanitarium Prop Package.

The pledge period ended successfully on Monday night. Processing the payments through Kickstarter and Amazon will take, by their estimate, approximately 14 days. That means I'll be receiving the funds around September 6th.

The production files for the already announced items (the embroidered patch, lapel pin, postcards, and notebook) are ready to be sent to their respective manufacturers as soon as the payment arrives. The only item I'm considering fiddling with is the notebook design, but that should be taken care of next week. I'm optimistically assuming a two week production time, so I should have everything in my hands the week of September 20th.

I have a couple of ideas for additional items I'd like to include and would appreciate your feedback on what you would like the most.

- A custom printed patient file folder. File folders are difficult to produce at home without a straight-line, large format printer. Since I'm a teenaged geek at heart I get all giggly at the idea of assembling complete patient files for Lovecraft's protagonists.

- Staff ID card. This would be a period accurate card (no lamination) with space for a photograph to be stapled or glued to it. Having this done by a professional printer would avoid the issues encountered trying to do accurate two-sided printing on a DIY basis.

Please chime in if there's anything else you would like.