Harper's Weekly

The eagerly awaited Harper's Weekly article recounting the experiences of a reporter in a Hashish House in New York has been uploaded to the exhibits section of the Museum Website. The unlikely escapade reveals the interior of one of the city's secretive haunts, where the wealthy and bohemian set imbibe the intoxicating psychoactive properties of the much demonized cannabis sativa, invisible to the thoroughfare of regular traffic that pounds the streets outside.
The article reflects the stylization of the time, delivering to its readership the very image already formed in its imagination of the experiences one might encounter in entering such a premises, the lush carpets and surrounds, the orientalized mysticism, the subconscious sense of foreboding that warns the reader that this is a place where civilization has given way to vice.
The author's description of the effects of the drug are more akin to a journalistic flight of fantasy, than the nature of the substances he has partaken, unless he has become an early proponent of ketamine use.
As with so many of the articles exhibited in the Museum, the underlying message is that drugs are synonymous with deviant sexuality and immigration and hence a threat to the moral fiber of the nation.

New exhibit

New exhibit from Harpers Weekly 19th Century coming soon. The article focuses on a reporters expose of a hashish house in New York. Check out the exhibits section this coming weekend!