A Room for History: Professionalizing the Archives Room at Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital to Create the Toledo State Hospital Museum.

摘要

An assortment of historical artifacts and documents currently reside at the Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital (NOPH). NOPH is an operating state psychiatric hospital located on the site of the original Toledo Asylum for the Insane, later named the Toledo State Hospital (TSH). There is potential for this collection to be transformed from a room of interesting objects into a professionally operating museum. The location of the museum, on the historic grounds of the TSH, provides an opportunity to create a unique sense of place to connect NOPH residents, staff, and the greater Toledo community to the often hidden histories of the Toledo State Hospital, mental illness, and institutionalization.;The Toledo Asylum for the Insane received its first patient in January of 1888, during the peak of asylum building in the United States. The facility, constructed on the cottage plan, represented a new approach in the treatment and care of individuals with mental illness. A detailed history of the institution, gathered through state and local public records, reveals its significance both locally and more broadly representing themes and changes in the field of care for people with mental illness.;Disability history and public history set the backdrop for the proposed museum and the application of museum standards and best practices create the framework to professionally exhibit and interpret the history.