Jon Crispin's Notebook

I have been editing and uploading the suitcases in the order in which they were shot.  This process is quite drawn out as I shot well over 30,000 images during the project and it is an enormous task.  I have been feeling really good about it though, as I am spending most days until 1 PM working on the files.  The photos in this post are all from a shoot on the 11th of December 2013.  At this point, Peg and I had worked through many of the suitcases that were full, and in this stretch the cases were largely empty except for labels.

Mary’s labels are quite evocative.  The small one on the left is unfortunately torn, so we can’t see her date of admittance, but the larger one on the right tells us that she came from Syracuse.  Dr Elliott’s name shows up often in our work, and I must assume that Elliott Hall at Willard is named after him.  (I can’t remember if I have ever linked to this before, but Dr. Robert E. Doran wrote a history of Willard in 1978 that is really interesting. Here is the link.)

There are so many small details that grabbed my attention when I was shooting.  This is all that was left of Mabel Y’s label.

Norah’s label tells us quite a lot.  Her Willard number, her date of admission, from where she came and into which building she went.  Peggy and I often had a laugh over the description of the suitcases; “leather-like” was used constantly.  And occasionally “cardboard-like” appeared.  When you think of it, cardboard-like is probably…..cardboard!

Ida came to Willard on 16 November 1929.  The string on the label is pretty and the Syracuse Post-Standard is from June of 1929.

Charles and his small leather grip arrived from the Binghamton State Hospital.

Richard’s case was clearly a traveling salesman’s and was completely empty.

Here is a detail.  The Zanol Company was based in Cincinnati.

Finally for today, Alice R’s case had this nice thermometer, a clasp for holding up a stocking, and a card from a Christmas present.

Please go to the Willard Suitcases site to see more photographs of these particular cases.  Click on “The Cases” and scroll down to the bottom to see the latest additions.  Thanks for following.