oregon state mental hospital museum

This not only had items from the movie One flew over the cuckoo's nest it also had a history of mental health and how it has evolved with patients with mental health. Admission was reasonable.

There is a lot of interesting stuff at this museum. However, the down side is you may not want to know some of it. The other downside of the museum is that it is pretty small, and there is some stuff that I just don't think is that interesting. (Example: the section on how the hospital cooked for so many people)Still, some places were very interesting, and I have talked about what I saw many times since. It's a good place to visit if you are interested in the history of mental health treatment. However, this is definitely not a fun place to take the family.

Every time I drove through Salem I would say that I would love to visit the museum. Well, it took me quite awhile but it was worth it. The museum is small but quite interesting. Housed within the beautifully maintained (at least from the outside) Kirkbride Building, the exhibits contain the history of the hospital as well as the patients. Great use of telephones to listen to oral histories. The One Flew Over the Cuckoos's Nest exhibit was smaller than I had envisioned but the information was still interesting. I highly recommend a visit if you have a few hours to fill. Admission is $4 regular, $3 seniors & students, $2 ages 6-18, under 6 free with adult. I don't recommend it for children under 12 unless they enjoy this type of thing. There are no children's exhibits to keep them occupied.

I have been wanting to visit OSH Museum for over a year now, I finally was able to get out to Oregon and visit, it was worth it.This is a museum on the active Oregon State Hospital campus. When pulling into the campus, signs will direct you to where you need to go, it is very easy to navigate to. The cost to get inside is so cheap, and worth every penny, it is only $4.00 a person.Once you pay at the main desk, you can walk around on the floor, going into different rooms. There are alot of displays and plenty of reading info to learn about the history of this mental hospital. You can view old photographs, and see old medical items that where used within the hospital itself. We walked around the museum part for a good solid hour. After you visit the museum part, do make sure you visit the memorial part. When coming out of the museum, take a left, and walk down to the memorial. It contains thousands of cremated remains of patients dating back from the 1800s. Almost all of them are unclaimed, and waiting for family members to claim their remains. The memorial is very well thought out, and we spent a good 30 minutes standing there taking in the powerful display of more than 2,000 actual patients of this mental hospital that are unclaimed.

This was a last minute choice. Very interesting and worth our time. I would recommend this stop to others visiting the area.

I'm so thankful there are people that knew this museum should be developed. The younger generations could never imagine what it was like in the early years of mental health care. This museum is small, but the displays are powerful if you take the time to read and listen. As the setting for "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" it was perfect. Take the time to look at the great book of pictures of past asylums across the country. I do recommend you visit. No credit cards yet.

This museum contains the history of the Oregon State Mental Hospital and has information dating back to the 19th century. There is quite a bit of dated equipment contained therein such as wheel chairs, typewriter, medical items, etc. There was a popular movie which was filmed here. It is very interesting and informative to learn about life in a mental hospital.

This museum is attached to the Oregon State Mental Hospital that is still in operation. It was a self guided tour for $4 (no AAA). It is only open from 12-4 on three days - Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. It held all sorts of old medical equipment and apparatus. It told stories of several specific people who resided in the hospital. If gave a lot of statistics about who was they, why they were there, what happened to them while they were there, and why/how they left. We learned about cremains and how they have many cremated remains of individuals who were never claimed by their families. There were several videos you could watch, and a few phones that you could pick up that had recordings from people who resided in the hospital. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed in this hospital and there is a fair amount of information about that. There were volunteers available (one of which was a retired doctor) in case you had any questions. Highly recommend this!

What a cool museum. Does a great job of telling the history of mental health and giving background about the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Doesn't pull any punches about how people were treated in the late 1800s and first half of the 1900s. Pretty sobering and uplifting at the same time. Treatment has come a long way since the early days of the OSH but still has further to go of course. The really amazing thing is all of the cremated remains that are still kept on the property, waiting for someone to claim them. That was my favorite exhibit there. Don't miss it!

This is THE place for history buffs. They tell the whole story, including the mass poisonings of patients, electroshock therapy, castration of gays, sterilization of epileptics. But also the provision of "asylum" for people otherwise shunned by society. This isn't Disneyland: you have to read and study the exhibits to appreciate what's here. The museum board is independent of the Hospital, so you can believe what you read. This is a must see for history buffs and folks who want to learn the history of American psychiatric care.

It was a very interesting place to visit and see how far we have come in the treatment and care of patients. Some of the old things they used to use are pretty scary. Over all it was very interesting

What an interesting place to go, I learned so much and had only known it for the movie that was filmed there. Fascinating displays of surprising aspects of treatment and life at the hospital for both patients and staff.

What a great treat to visit a landmark of movie history. Lots of educational facts and items. Patients are in this building to this day. The museum part is small but worth the visit.

I dated a man who worked as an aid in the 60's, and he used to take me to work on Sunday. It was clearly a warehouse situation. A lot of the people suffered from senile dementia and Alzhimers, though they didn't have a name for it then. The usual word was "senile". There were no care facilities for memory care in the 60's, so they were sent to the state hospital, though they were not technically "mentally ill". Also, going through the museum, I was amazed at the number of children that were in the hospital, as well as the number of women. It seems if the husband were dissatisfied with his wife, he could just send her to the hospital, and say she was mentally ill.I spent almost 2 hours there, and found it fascinating. Maybe not to everyone's taste, but I worked in a laboratory for almost 20 years, and have close relatives who are mentally ill, so probably had more interest than most of the population.

The mental health museum is located in the former state mental hospital, built in the 1880's. The building has some unique architecture and is in a nice setting. There are several exhibits showing treatment techniques and equipment from the past, such as electro shock therapy machines. Probably the most interesting aspect was that a retired doctor from the facility served as docent and provided some interesting information and viewpoints. Well worth a couple of hours to visit.