The Lyon Archive

The blue devils. A poor depressed man.

Item

Subject

An etching by T.L. Busby ca. 1826 of the phenomenon of the blue devils, depicting a man preparing to hang himself.

Description

The blue devils was a term given to melancholy and sadness. It refers to "intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal," and as time went on, it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.

Creator

T.L. Busby

Source

Wikimedia Commons

Publisher

Wikimedia Commons, 18 October 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_blue_devils._A_poor_depressed_man_Wellcome_L0064377.jpg

Date

1826

Contributor

Audre Pile

Rights

This item, attributed to Wellcome Images, is protected by the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Relation

N/A

Format

.jpeg

Language

N/A

Type

N/A

Identifier

N/A

Coverage

N/A

Citation

T.L. Busby, “The blue devils. A poor depressed man.,” The Lyon Archive, accessed May 5, 2024, https://lyon.eastendarchives.net/items/show/29.