Indiana Medical History Museum

The Indiana Medical History Museum is collecting oral histories of people connected to the former Central State Hospital in Indianapolis. WFYI’s Taylor Bennett sat down with the museum’s executive director Sarah Halter, to learn more about the Voices Project and the importance of preserving the history of the often controversial, now closed, hospital.

Its uncertain what the future holds for an Indiana Medical History Museum effort to honor psychiatric patients who died at Central State Hospital after an IMPD construction project exhumed some of the graves.

The Indiana Medical History Museum at Central State continues to highlight its history by focusing on the stories of patients who were treated at the psychiatric facility -- from the 1840s through 2010. Its latest project involves identifying patients buried in the first section of a cemetery on the site.

The museum transports you to the late 1800s when Central State Mental Hospital opened on the west side of Indianapolis.

Medical and law history in Indiana will be documented and preserved, thanks to grants from the Indiana Historical Society.