Photo Album of The Mabel E. Manahan Sanitarium

Englewood, New Jersey: [1920s]. Photo album binding of string tied brown leather wrappers, 8.75 x 5.75", titled in gilt to front cover "The Mabel E. Manahan Sanitarium." Contains 27 pasted in sepia-toned photographs, each 5.5 x 3.5" plus margins. A photo album consisting of interior and exterior views of The Mabel E. Manahan Sanitarium, a small health center owned and operated by Mabel E. Manahan in Englewood, New Jersey. According to newspaper articles, the center, also known as "Engle Nook," housed "aged men and women, some from the wealthy hill section to the east...most of them to die. They had outlived usefulness at home and were burdens on socially inclined sons and daughters." Around 1928, Dr. Harry Petters began implementing a German cure for heroin addiction at the home, resulting in a series of unusual incidents, including the deaths of several patients, a break-in, an escape, the disappearance of a nurse, and suspicions that a patient was a "maniac slayer." In 1930, Manahan was found guilty of practicing medicine without a license; a year later, she filed for bankruptcy ("Engle Nook Casts Last Shadow Over Englewood; Ominous Mystery of Months Ends In Eviction," The Bergen Evening Record, 4/9/1931)

The album itself, meanwhile, contains views of the well-appointed house and grounds, possibly intended to promote the facility to wealthy clientele. Shown are the living room, a Christmas tree with presents, bedrooms for patients. a nursery, the dining room, an x-ray room, and more. The last three photos show a well-to-do woman (possibly Mabel) with her car and dog. Images in very good condition, wear and discoloration to wrappers, images detaching from album leaves, one image missing. Item #13098

Price: $450.00