Behind the Yellow Wallpaper is a relaxed summer series that uses The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman as a starting point to explore ideas around mental health, gender, creativity, and history. Through casual discussions, guest speakers, and presentations, this series will connect the story to real materials from the museum’s archives and ephemera collection.
This series will meet bi-weekly Thursdays from 12:30-2:00 PM at the Henry Sheldon Museum. Admission is free but pre-registration is preferred.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys are available in the Museum Store for purchase.
August 6, 2026
The Madwoman in the Attic: Colonial and Racial Implications on Mental Health
Centered around a discussion of The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, this week’s installment will explore the intersection of race, mental health, and art.
Written as somewhat of a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, The Wide Sargasso Sea reframes the narrative of the madwoman in the attic by asking what drove her mad in the first place? This book provides a jumping off point for a discussion of how gender, race, and colonialism all factor into mental health, as well as our understanding of how colonialism and race factor into western art and literature.
Presentation by Allison Cardon & Alexandra Weimer
August 20, 2026
Out from behind The Yellow Wallpaper: Voices of Vermont Women in Mental Institutions from the Museum’s archives.
What did it look like to receive mental health treatment as a woman in the 19th century? This week we will be discussing letters sent from Addison County women receiving treatment in New England sanitariums. These first hand accounts will provide important context for discussions around gender and mental health treatment in Vermont, both historic and contemporary.
The letters we will be discussing come from three separate facilities: Brattleboro Retreat, Jackson Sanitarium, and lastly Dr. Cunningham’s in Braintree, MA.
Presentation by Dr. Melissa Dubroff