For decades, thousands of stories lay hidden in the Oregon State Hospital's "Room of Forgotten Souls," holding approximately 3,500 copper canisters of unclaimed cremains from patients who died there and in surrounding institutions, some as far back as 100 years ago. Fifteen years after its discovery, an online database and memorial have brought these cremains to public attention, reuniting hundreds with living relatives. Still, many secrets remain.
Listen here as “Unclaimed” delves into these untold stories using Ancestry's tools, archival records, and genealogy research with host Amy Standen. Listeners will hear about newfound siblings, the mystery of a famous poet's missing matriarch, and life at OSH through medical records and descendant accounts. The series will reveal how Ancestry is uncovering family secrets and reuniting forgotten ashes with modern-day descendants.
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For decades, thousands of stories lay hidden in the Oregon State Hospital's "Room of Forgotten Souls," holding approximately 3,500 copper canisters of unclaimed cremains from patients who died there and in surrounding institutions, some as far back as 100 years ago. Fifteen years after its discovery, an online database and memorial have brought these cremains to public attention, reuniting hundreds with living relatives. Still, many secrets remain.
Listen here as “Unclaimed” delves into these untold stories using Ancestry's tools, archival records, and genealogy research with host Amy Standen. Listeners will hear about newfound siblings, the mystery of a famous poet's missing matriarch, and life at OSH through medical records and descendant accounts. The series will reveal how Ancestry is uncovering family secrets and reuniting forgotten ashes with modern-day descendants.
In 1975, Dr. Dean Brooks, superintendent of Oregon State Hospital, made the controversial decision to allow a Hollywood crew to film on-site at OSH. The film crew of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) observed patients receiving electroshock therapy and participating in group therapy sessions, and even spent the night in the hospital wards. Believing it would spark a vital conversation about mental illness and the abuse of power, he gave producer Michael Douglas and the cast unprecedented access as a chance for producers and actors to see what life was really like inside a psychiatric hospital. Eventually, the rest of us would see it too.
For the past three episodes, Unclaimed has told stories about the patients who died at Oregon State Hospital, and whose remains were never claimed by their families. There are thousands of these cases, rediscovered inside what became known as the Room of Forgotten Souls. Listen as Michael Douglas, Dr. Dean Brooks, and others detail its legacy within the hospital’s complex history—just in time for Cuckoo’s Nest’s 50th anniversary this week.
Also, learn how the 1960s were a time of upheaval in the mental health establishment, and how radical reformers like Brooks viewed and ultimately transformed the institutions they oversaw.
Unclaimed
For decades, thousands of stories lay hidden in the Oregon State Hospital's "Room of Forgotten Souls," holding approximately 3,500 copper canisters of unclaimed cremains from patients who died there and in surrounding institutions, some as far back as 100 years ago. Fifteen years after its discovery, an online database and memorial have brought these cremains to public attention, reuniting hundreds with living relatives. Still, many secrets remain.
Listen here as “Unclaimed” delves into these untold stories using Ancestry's tools, archival records, and genealogy research with host Amy Standen. Listeners will hear about newfound siblings, the mystery of a famous poet's missing matriarch, and life at OSH through medical records and descendant accounts. The series will reveal how Ancestry is uncovering family secrets and reuniting forgotten ashes with modern-day descendants.
