Hudson River State Hospital Patient Toothbrush Insane Asylum Kirkbride Authentic

Description

If you're looking at this listing, you like know what you're looking at, but if not, let me give a brief explanation: for many years, it was well-known to all regular visitors to long-abandoned Hudson River State Hospital that there was a marvelous cabinet that contained about 100 patient toothbrushes, each bearing the name of its owner, in one of the second-floor bathrooms of the Female Wards.
It was customary for visiting photographers to photograph the cabinet as it was, and then select one of the less vibrant toothbrushes as a memento. Sadly, around 2007, some joker took all of them, and over the years people tried (quite unsuccessfully) to recreate the scene. The toothbrush cabinet was as iconic as interior abandoned asylum features get; sadly, one person got almost all of the toothbrushes.
Almost all.
This toothbrush was taken prior to some greedy git looting the remaining brushes, and is
guaranteed authentic
, unlike several I've seen listed on eBay
.
It can be seen in any pre-2006 photograph (such as the widely published artistic work by Christopher Payne) as the fifth brush from the left in the top row of the right-hand (swinging) enclosure.
This is part of a large set of listings I am going to be putting up this summer of asylum, sanatorium, and quarantine hospital memorabilia. Unfortunately, the acquisition of an even larger and more historically important collection inherited after the passing of my best friend has forced my wife and I both to part with some of our treasures; we live in NYC and have limited space.
Please inspect the pictures carefully and ask any questions you may have ahead of time - no returns will be allowed for any reason from these auctions.