The Indiana Medical History Museum is located in the Old Pathology Building on the grounds of the former Central State Hospital on the near westside of Indianapolis. The museum represents the beginning of scientific psychiatry and modern medicine while the building itself is the oldest surviving pathology facility in the nation and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The museum maintains a collection of scientific artifacts from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a completely authentic setting. Constructed in 1895 and inaugurated in 1896, the nineteen-room Pathological Department Building, as it was then called, is equipped with three clinical laboratories, a photography lab, teaching amphitheatre, autopsy room, and library.
Explore this site to learn more about the Indiana Medical History Museum as well as Indiana's medical heritage. The museum also offers an extensive list of links to other websites relating to medical history, science education and health careers.
The Medicinal Plant Garden at the IMHM was created and is maintained by Purdue Master Gardeners of Marion County. The garden features over 90 different medicinal plants, including trees, shrubs, and vines as well as annuals and herbaceous species. Nearly half of the specimens are Native American medicinal plants, while others originated in Europe, Asia, and Africa. So that a visit to the garden can be an educational as well as aesthetic experience, each plant is accompanied by signage stating its origin, what parts had medicinal uses, and what some of those uses were. Common and scientific names are given.