Vintage Toe Tags

Own a piece of morbid history from the Harlem Valley State Hospital. These stamped morgue coins sold by Matts Curio Cabinet were once attached to deceased patients within the correctional facility turned mental asylum.

Operational from 1924 to 1994, the asylum once housed 5,000 people. But probably the most fascinating and also disturbing part of the history of Harlem Valley is that it was essentially the birthplace of the transorbital lobotomy.

This is the location where neuropsychiatrist Walter Freeman began practicing what was sadly seen as a revolutionary procedure at the time, first invented by Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz who (under much controversy) won the Nobel Prize in 1949.

Oddities and curiosities collectors, or those just looking for a grade A strange gift, can purchase an individual toe tag or several.

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