Not enough time to listen to all the QR code features in the exhibits during your visit? Access them all right here.
Videos
1964 Description of life on Ward 36 as published in the April 15th Edition of the O.S.H. Quest
1883 Description of OSH Wards as published in the Morning Oregonian
1861 Description of the Hawthorne Asylum in Portland by Dr. J.S. Giltner
Links:
Listen to a description of wards at the Oregon State Hospital, published in the October 24, 1883 edition of the Morning Oregonian.
The following article was found in a scrapbook in the Oregon State Hospital Museum Collections. From the text it appears that it was published in the Oregon Statesman Newspaper in 1965, although exact publication date is unknown.
Charles Robinson, whose service as a psychiatric aide and a supervisor of aides stretches to the days when the OSH was known as the state insane asylum,* will be honored by hospital employees Wednesday as he retires.
Robinson, who was 65 in January, has been a hospital employee since 1934, except for three years in the service in world War II. Since 1945 he has been supervisor of aides.
More Pleasant today.
Services as a mental hospital aide has never been easy, but it’s a more pleasant job now than it was before the advent of drugs, Robinson recalls.
Treatment in 1934 was custodial only for the vast majority of patients; about 2100 were crowded into the old Center building and the Dome building at OSH.
“I was scared to death for the first five or six weeks,” Robinson recalls. “In those days they just handed you the keys, sent you to a ward and you went to work.” Read the rest of this entry »
The following was published in the March 27, 1955 edition of the Oregonian newspaper as a supplement to an article by Ann Sullivan on new drug treatments being introduced at the Oregon State Hospital. It is excerpted below.
Nine Methods Stand Out In Care of Mentally Ill
These are the most frequent treatments for the mentally ill in use at the Oregon state and most other mental hospitals today:
Psychotherapy, counseling directly with patient by doctor.
Electrotherapy, use of electric shock treatments which often can bring patient back to reality.
Insulin coma, lowering of blood sugar by insulin so that higher centers of central nervous system can be rested, calmed.
Nutritional therapy, use of right food, vitamins, etc., to restore patient to physical health.
Milieu, maintaining setting of healthful social living as much as possible for those who can be helped.
Group therapy, group discussion by patients of mental problems led by a therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist.
Chlorpormazine and reserpine, new drugs which have calming effect on several types of patients.
Attitude therapy, in which entire personnel of a patient’s ward has been particularly instructed on special handling.
Sedatives and Hydrotherapy (warm baths), also used for calming down.
Listen to the 1868 report of visiting physician Dr. J.S. Giltner to the Oregon Hospital for the Insane in Portland. The Oregon Hospital for the Insane was a private hospital run by Drs. Hawthorne and Loreya in Portland, Oregon from 1861-1883. They contracted with the State of Oregon for the care of people diagnosed with insanity prior to the creation of the Oregon State Hospital in Salem.
We are experimenting with the idea of using a combination of QR codes and YouTube videos to create audio features in the exhibit spaces. This is our first attempt. Let us know what you think below.
In researching the history of restraint as a form of treatment we came across this excellent (and entertaining) lecture by archivist Colin Gale on the history of Bethlem Hospital, also known in popular parlance as Bedlam. Bethlem Hospital was founded in London in 1247 and is considered by many the world’s first asylum. As highlighted in the lecture, the hospital had a practice of allowing public tours of the facilities during its history, a questionable practice that has left some interesting eye witness accounts of the facilities and practices.
The property tag on this operating table shows it was used at the Oregon State Hospital, but beyond that we didn’t know too much more about it. So we decided to do some investigating.
A little crawling around on the floor revealed a manufacturer’s tag that reads: “Made by the Shampaine Company, St. Louis Missouri, U.S.A. Model No. S-1502. Serial No. 527. Patent Nos. 2,416,410; 2,501,415; 2,532,677. Other patents pending.”
A quick Google search did not turn up much more than several other pieces from the Shampaine Company for sale on EBay. So we turned to the U.S. Patent Office, hoping that the patent issue dates might give us an early date of manufacture for the piece. With the following results: Read the rest of this entry »
Ward Hall Exhibit taking shape
The following description of the Comm Center and its duties was published in a 1963 open house brochure at the Oregon State Hospital. In 1963, the Comm Center was located in the Kirkbride building just to the southeast of the building’s main entrance. Later it moved to the 35 building (Breitenbush Hall) on the north side of Center Street. The new Comm Center is located in the new hospital entrance, just to the southeast of the Kirkbride building as seen in photo below.
The new Comm Center constructed as part of the Oregon State Hospital Replacement Project. Photo HOK Design Firm.
The Communications Center at Oregon State Hospital could also be known as the “nerve center” as much because of its activities as its location.
Visitors to the hospital naturally gravitate to the Center Building because of its imposing architecture and there, just inside the front door, personnel of the Communication Center are ready to give directions or general hospital information, to handle merchandise for Volunteer Services, to locate staff members for visitors, and to assist patients who might encounter difficulties while away from their wards.
The hospital switchboard service is located in the Communications Center and here all hospital mail is distributed.
The staff here also arranges the dispatching of hospital cars and ambulances to transport patients to and from the hospital.
Communications Center personnel assume the responsibility for a myriad of other small Read the rest of this entry »
Can you identify this?
Oregon State Hospital Museum Project 