To each a space: Class, classification, and gender in colonial South Australian institutions

In South Australia government authorities in a fledging colony were required to build institutions to care for the poor and the pauper insane, and they drew on designs from England, where workhouses and county asylums were being built in response to new laws. From a simple glance at the plans of the Destitute Asylum, which was built to house the deserving poor, and of the Adelaide and Parkside Lunatic asylums, it would appear that gender divisions dominated life in these institutions. A study of the material culture of the asylums, however, indicates a complex range of factors was, in fact, informing the experience of the asylum for the inmates. Gender, classification, social class, and the organizational purpose of the particular institution were all to play a role in determining the access to and use of the space and rooms of the asylums.