DHPA staff spent last weekend with staff from Ball State University Anthropology and Applied Anthropology Laboratories and from the Indiana Medical History Museum. The Museum is working with Ball State to help better define the boundaries of one of the cemeteries used by the former Central State Hospital. Using ground penetrating radar, the Ball State staff will hopefully be able to identify number of grave shafts, locations of these shafts, and how big of an area the cemetery is.
They will not be able to identify who is buried there by this method. That is being done through archival research by the Museum's staff. This project is part of a greater program of the Museum to offer some social justice to the former patients, return some of their humanity, and provide a better understanding of the history of those institutionalized at the facility.
The building which houses the Indiana Medical History Museum was the pathology lab for the hospital. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has received grant funds from DHPA for restoration.
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