This photo came to me with two pieces of identifying information. “Folz Studio, Moose Lake, Minn,” printed on its cardboard frame and, written in pencil on the back: 6-25-1955. Whether or not further information exists on the back of the photo itself will remain a mystery; the adhesive is still holding strong 70 years later.
The presumption of Moose Lake State Hospital is an educated guess: a local librarian confirmed that there was only one hospital in Moose Lake in 1955, and it’s a reasonable assumption that the likelihood of another institution hiring a photographer not local to their area is low.
Further, on Sunday, June 26th, 1955, The Daily Plainsman (a Huron, South Dakota newspaper), reported that students from St. John’s School of Nursing (Rapid City, South Dakota) had returned from their psychiatry affiliation at Moose Lake State Hospital.
The Minnesota Mental Health Survey published in December 1956 reported that the state’s mental hospitals were at that time providing 12 weeks of clinical experience in psychiatric nursing to 200 students each quarter. Many of these students traveled to complete these requirements when exposure to inpatient psychiatric environments was not available in their local area. As a result of greater need outside Minnesota, students were at that time also being welcomed from nursing programs in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa.
Minnesota was also respected for the superior attention paid to aide orientation relative to other states. In 1957, Moose Lake implemented a delineation between its general 2.5 week employee training program (introduced in 1950) and a new one year training course specifically for psychiatric aides.
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