The Austin State Hospital. Photo by augenbuch/Flickr

Everyone's got brains on the brain these days. With Obama's $100M brain initiative, new cerebral transparency and further investigations into neurology-determined behavior, it's easy to forget how little we knew about the human central computer just a short time ago.

That's what surprised photographer Adam Voorhes when he stumbled on a collection of these preserved organs from the former Texas State Lunatic Asylum (now called Austin State Hospital). The diagnoses attached to the samples caught his attention: Lou Gehrig’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis. Not exactly reasons to be hospitalized in a mental institution by today's standards.

"What makes them incredibly interesting is the subject matter, even though they were also beautiful to see," says Voorhes, who lives in Austin and has previously shot assignments for Wired.

The collection now resides at the University of Texas at Austin, and consists of brains taken from patients who died at the asylum sometime between the 1950s and 80s. Voorhes says photographing the remains was like looking at a timeline of how mental health practices have evolved.

With his interested piqued, Voorhes wanted to find out more about the hospital and the patients so he brought in his friend Alex Hannaford, a features journalist. Hannaford started digging and eventually discovered that even though it was called the Texas State Lunatic Asylum, a name that conjures up horrible images, the institution was one of the more progressive at the time it was founded.

The building was designed to create a comfortable environment with fresh air and tall windows. Patients were encouraged to stroll through the oak and pecan trees that covered the property and they tended to and ate from their own vegetable garden.

Over time, however, things deteriorated. The hospital was plagued by overcrowding and struggled to keep up as mental health care practices evolved and doctors experimented with new drugs and techniques like electric shock therapy. The hospital still operates today, but according to Hannaford, resources are stretched because Texas spends less than any other state on mental health care.

When Voorhes and Hannaford tried to find more information about the patients they were disappointed to learn all the patient records had been destroyed.

For years the brains have sat mostly dormant. One brain was part of an important experiment about Huntington’s Disease back in the 1980s but they haven't been used as extensively as some of the other collections around the county. With MRI scans and advances in DNA analysis that might change as scientists find new ways to burrow in and discover the clues the inevitably sit inside.

"Those patients who died as long ago as the 1950s, who once lived in the Austin State Hospital – that Victorian institution built on a shaded lot on the edge of Austin, Texas, and the place where they took their last breath – may still offer us a chance to unlock the secrets they took with them," Hannaford writes in an essay he built from the research.

At the moment Voorhes and Hannaford are in the process of designing a book. They say they love the story and the beauty of the brains, but also have an interest in sharing the resource. The more people who know about the brains and their potential, the better.

"We hope our work helps preserve the project and we hope it makes it accessible to as many people as possible," Voorhe says.