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Glasgow Magdalene Institution

Glasgow Caledonian University, Research Collections, Heatherbank Museum of Social Work

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Glasgow Magdalene Institution

Lochburn Home, Maryhill, run by the Glasgow Magdalene Institution for the Repression of Vice and for the Reformation of Penitent Females, illustrated c 1890.

The original Glasgow Magdalene Asylum opened in 1815 in the then rural Parliamentary Road, to "rescue" and "reform" prostitutes at a time of increasing concern for the moral health of the country. Lochburn Home opened in 1864. The women were taught how to support themselves through industrial training, mostly in the institution's laundries.

An advertisement in 1888 claimed: "nearly 5,000 young women have shared more or less in the benefits of the Institution since 1859. During the same period no fewer than 1,080 young women have been restored to parents or friends, and 942 have been placed in domestic service or other respectable employment, while thirty-two were sent abroad, thus making 2,054 who have been rescued from a life of shame and restored to society, after having received the usual education and training in the Homes".

Lochburn Home closed in 1958 following an inquiry into the alleged ill-treatment of inmates.

Reference: Heatherbank Museum of Social Work, print 6413

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow Caledonian University, Research Collections, Heatherbank Museum of Social Work

Keywords:
asylums, charities, Glasgow Magdalene Asylum, Glasgow Magdalene Institution for the Repression of Vice and for the Reformation of Penitent Females, industrial training, laundries, Lochburn Home, prostitutes, prostitution, reformatories, women



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