willardsuitcases.com is now live!
Well, this took a while. I was feeling a bit low about the fact that it took me so long to have the suitcases site up and running. Steve Fox, who designed it and put it together was very sympathetic when I expressed this to him. He mentioned a great Chinese proverb that I had never heard. “The best time to plant a tree is 100 years ago. The second best time is right now”. So I guess it isn’t too late. He did such a beautiful job and I am so pleased with the results. So, just a few notes. It is going to take quite a while for me to upload all the cases, but once I have done so, each one will be available to see. As of this moment, there are only eight, but bear with me as I work on the images and upload them to the server. Photos will eventually be for sale for anyone interested. I will be offering two sizes and will print them myself. So check it out by clicking here.
Here is a case I shot on Tuesday.
It belonged to Delmar H.
It is one of my favorite suitcases.
It is very heavy and quite battered.
I found myself wishing that more of this label was intact. It is from a hotel in Bologna, Italy.
There were a few really nice features. The handle was very sturdy and the hasps were very well made.
None of Delmar’s possessions were inside; just a few scraps of paper and a piece of twine, along with a small portion of the original label from when she arrived at Willard.
I had been unable to shoot the suitcases for a bit, and it felt so great to be back.
And one more piece of news that totally blows me away. I got an email from Hunter Oatman-Stanford who wrote one of the best (and earliest) articles on the project for Collector’s Weekly. Get this…..his story has garnered over 1 million unique page views! Unreal. I’ll thank him again for blowing this whole thing wide open, as most of the interest the project has received is due to him.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
Hooray! Congratulations and good luck with the project. I am sure we are all very patient and will be happy to keep checking back for updates. Best wishes!
Congratulations!!!
This is well worth waiting for.
Thank you!
Beautiful website!
That is great! Congratulations! I will certainly be viewing these and anxious to see the photos. Selling the photos sounds like a wonderful ideal….I will keep my eye on up-coming postings! Thank you…barbara S.
You did such a beautiful job on this.
Congratulations!! :). Every time i get an update from your site i get really excited, i love it when you unravel the history of these people that could have been lost forever. Its like a bizarre christmas event 🙂
interesting views. Stuff, with a story untold
the website looks great! It’ll be wonderful to discuss the cases with our students – really inspirational –
so happy to see your website up,I finally saw the suitcases in person a few weeks ago it was very moving. great to see Freda’s things in person.I also loved the melting red rubber heels and the photography equipment
[…] Jon Crispin has been given the opportunity […]