Unfortunately at this time we are not set up to take credit card payments. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Admission is $5.00 for adults. Children 12 and under are free.

Please bring cash for admission!

We have had many compliments about our museum this last year. Word seems to be spreading. If you’ve never visited our museum, please consider doing so. It is a real hidden gem.

Here is info on visiting us!

These leg braces are in one of our most popular rooms here at the museum: the medical room. Because I cropped this image, you can’t quite see the autopsy saw that is located to the left, in front of the prosthetic legs. So you’ll just have to come visit us to see the autopsy saw!

This last Saturday when I was giving tours of our museum, one item really got a lot of attention. It’s part of our “Unclaimed Property of Patients” display on the second floor.

I added the yellow highlights to these images so you can see what it is. It is a very large Hohner Marine Band Echo Tremelo harmonica. In the next image you can see it up close. It makes the regular size harmonica in front of it seem quite small in comparison:

I am trying to learn a little more about this wonderful object.

Here are a couple pictures of the Patrick Cottage at the State Hospital taken in 1959. Overcrowding was to the point where they had to find somewhere for the extra beds….

The State Hospital Museum will be open tomorrow, and there is a special offer for the first two people to visit: free admission + a $10.00 Visa Gift Card! Nancy Hall will be there to open up at 10 am, so if you’re there first, you not only get in for free, but also a token of thanks for visiting us.

I will probably stop by later in the day, so if you want to talk about patient records, I’d be happy to talk with you!

We are working on setting up new ways for people to donate to our museum. Currently we just have a cash box and hope people put 5 bucks in there when they visit. Heck, we usually don’t have any change, so we just say, “well, this time is free for you!”

I personally have been asked if I charge research fees. I usually don’t, but have set up a paypal donation page for people to contribute to my efforts if they feel they are worthwhile. I specialize in digging deep into our physical archives and finding information that simply can not be found elsewhere. If you want to contribute, you can use this QR code to my paypal donation page:

Or use This Link to Donate.

I love helping people find information. Thanks for helping keep history alive.

We are working on setting up donation options for the museum, as many people suggest different technical solutions. I will post any information here when we determine what services we’ll utilize.

–Richard

Today I tried a different approach with our scanner to see if it worked using some backlight. I got somewhat better results on this negative of Guy Mayo, a long-time employee of the hospital:

But it still doesn’t compare well to scanning an actual photo:

Just a quick note to tell you that we are still testing out being open on Saturdays, and will be open this Saturday, Feb. 11th, from 10 am to 4 pm.

As usual, a donation of $5.00 per adult is asked. Hope to see you Saturday!

It’s Tuesday, but it was 6 below zero this morning, so it’s a slow day at the museum. While Nancy is looking through an old Ward Census tome, I found this little tiny picture (original is 2 inches by 2 inches) in a collection of documents Nell is preparing for a presentation about the State Hospital Facilities division. It’s so tiny I decided to scan it at the highest settings and see how it would turn out:

It’s a real joy when you find an old picture and the names of the people on it are written on the back. Too many historical picture are just blank on the back, making you wonder who the people on it were.

[UPDATE TO THIS POST: When trying the method below, I did not use any backlight, which I think will produce MUCH better results. Look for the results to be posted here in a future blog post! –Richard]

Today I decided to scan a negative in to our scanner here at the museum and see if it could handle negatives. Apparently not, so I’ll try bringing some of them to the PCHS and scan them there. In the meantime, though, I did get this image by inverting the values and messing around with the levels, using GIMP:

I’d like to see these pictures in full detail. So I’m looking into it…. 🙂