This card showing Bischoff's Turkish Bath House in Seminary Street, Collinsville, Illinois, was postmarked 8 November 1909, but the baths must have been opened some years earlier as by this time they were 'in charge of Prof. Swensen, a graduate from Stockholm, Sweden'.

The building also housed the Swedish Medical Gymnastic Institute. This was run by Julius Hanson, whose wife ran the Turkish baths on 'Ladies Days' (Tuesdays and Thursdays between seven in the morning and six in the evening). Men's hours were longer: from noon till midnight on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays; from eight in the evening till midnight after the women bathers had left; and from seven in the morning till six in the evening on Sundays.

The Gymnastic Institute advertised itself as specialising in 'Digestive Disorders, Nervous Affections and Spinal Curvature', while 'Chronic and Surgical Cases in general' were 'successfully treated with movements and manipulations (including scientific Massage).

It is not known how long the baths remained open.

This item is from the collection of the Victorian Turkish Baths Project