ST. JOSEPH — The lunatic box is no place for the claustrophobic. Think of an old-time, rough-hewn wooden outhouse, only much smaller and with no place to sit. The people outside lock you in rather than the other way around. You stand there for hours on end, with no room to even move your arms or legs. There’s a small window to look out, but it’s usually closed, leaving you in darkness.

A stint in the lunatic box would be enough to drive a person insane. But its purpose was exactly the opposite: to calm mentally ill patients who had become violent or lost control.

The lunatic box is one of several antiquated treatments for mental illness on display at the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph. There’s also the tranquilizer chair, the fever cabinet and the dousing tub, in which patients were repeatedly doused with ice-cold water.

Other exhibits recall the behavior of patients. There’s a display of 1,445 objects found in a woman’s stomach and another of the more than 100,000 empty cigarette packs a patient collected in an effort to win a wheelchair.

George Glore, a 41-year employee of the Missouri mental health care system, opened the odd and somewhat creepy museum in 1967. It was once the site of the St. Joseph State Hospital, originally called the State Lunatic Asylum No. 2. The hospital opened in 1874 with 25 patients and eventually grew to house and treat almost 3,000 patients by the 1950s.

Glore said his interest in the history of mental illness prompted him to open the museum.

“I just had a general interest in the quality of care that patients have received and an interest in the procedures used in treating them,” Glore said. He also wanted to show how the treatment of mental illness has evolved and to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

“It was my belief that we needed to be honest with the public and let them know what had been done in the past, so we don’t make those mistakes again,” Glore said. “It’s not something we can deny. It happened.”

Museum spokeswoman Kathy Reno said working at the museum is “constantly interesting.” She has seen many people from around the country who come to learn about the history of mental health care and said the most interesting part of her job is the diversity of visitors.

“People find us from all over the world,” Reno said.

Reno said about 20,000 people per year visit the museum. They come for a variety of reasons, such as researching family history, early nursing practices or a genuine curiosity about mental health care.

“Generally, visitors are interested in coming here because they are studying something related to history or mental health issues,” Reno said, adding that most people leave with new knowledge and appreciation for the advances in medicine.

“Most of the time people are so grateful about how far we’ve come,” Reno said. “For some people it’s entertainment, but most people come to gain knowledge. What generally surprises visitors most is the artistic talent former patients possessed and how isolated and self-sufficient the original hospital campus was.”

Glore said the best part of starting the museum is seeing people’s reactions after they see the exhibits. He said he has had only one negative reaction and that person had only read about the museum.

Approaching the Glore museum produces an eerie chill. The former lunatic asylum is an imposing, institutional brick structure that rises three stories tall. As you walk into the museum, the musty smell recalls an older era. Each floor illustrates a different aspect of the former hospital. Exhibits in the basement depict the hospital’s former physical and occupational therapy treatments as well as its extensive farming operation, which was staffed by patients and employees and allowed the hospital to be self-sufficient. The basement also features the hospital’s morgue.

The second floor is devoted to treatments used on the mentally ill from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Here you can see a witch-burning exhibit, which shows a mannequin tied to a pole over a fire being burned alive.

The second floor also is home to the lunatic box, which was used in the 18th and 19th centuries. And there’s also a large wooden contraption, somewhat akin to an enclosed hamster wheel for humans. Violent or unruly patients would be locked inside the wheel and left to run off their energy for hours, in the dark, with no ventilation and with no idea when they would be let out.

Down the hall is a favorite of the visitors: a collection of 1,446 items — including safety pins, earrings, nuts, bolts and stones — found in a woman’s stomach during a surgery that ended in her death.

The third floor offers a look at artworks created by patients. A bed sheet embroidered by a chronic schizophrenic and mute hangs on the wall. It features the patient's thoughts, scattered around the cloth and running together in different colors. It was the patient’s only way to communicate, though something is lost in the translation. “Get some glass off to have something to drink,” one phrase reads. “So you better be good for goodness sake,” another reminds.

A crate full of 100,000 empty cigarette packs collected by a patient is also on display. The patient believed the packages could be redeemed for a new wheelchair for the hospital. No such prize existed, but after collecting 108,000 packs, the hospital administration presented the patient’s unit with a new wheelchair in his honor.

You will also find an odd television, full of 525 folded papers. In 1971, a male patient was found putting a piece of paper in the back of the television set. An electrician called to the hospital discovered 525 letters stuffed into the set. The patient believed the hospital was stealing his money. It is unclear whether he was hiding his letters or trying to send them through the television.

The museum is also said by some to be haunted. Strangeusa.com wrote of speculation that a man in dress pants haunts the third floor, that an old patient wanders the halls of the building and that 10 separate groups of visitors have reported hearing a woman whispering, “Help me.”

Reports of hauntings “took me by surprise,” Reno said. “I have never heard from anyone who found anything concrete.”

The Glore Psychiatric Museum, at 3406 Frederick Ave. in St. Joseph, is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $3.50 for adults and $1.50 for students. Children six and younger get in free.