Southern California hospital to open psychiatric museum

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- A Southern California psychiatric hospital in operation since 1893 plans to open a museum that will showcase the changing nature of treatment over more than a century.

The Sun newspaper reported Sunday that the Patton State Hospital Museum will feature more than 140 artifacts, including original machines used in electroconvulsive -- or shock -- treatments.

Also on display will be a 1913 hydrotherapy tub, nursing uniforms from the 1950s and 1960s and a fire-hose wagon from the early 1900s.

The museum initially will be open on a limited basis.

Originally known as Southern California State Hospital for the Insane and Inebriates, Patton currently treats about 1,500 patients, all of whom are committed through court orders.