Please check this out.
Hi Everyone, Lin Stuhler has been working for the last 10 years to reclaim some respect to the patients at Willard and other New York State institutions. She recently posted this on her site “The Inmates of Willard“. Please read it.
I am really interested in moving ahead with lobbying NY State legislators to sort this issue out. If any of you have ideas on how to proceed or have connections to state legislators, please get in touch.
Thanks for following.
The above photo is from Margaret D.’s collection. It is amazing. Check it out here. There are over 500 photos in the gallery so make sure you click on the 500 link at the bottom. Also if you are on Instagram, I am posting an image almost daily. @willardsuitcases.
Talk at The American Shakespeare Center
Hi Everyone. I will be giving a talk before the American Shakespeare Center’s production of “The Willard Suitcases” this Friday at 5:00 PM (22 November). The performance begins at 7:30. Tickets are still available, and it would be great to see any of you there. Julianne Wick Davis’s songs are amazing and Ethan McSweeny’s production is very moving.
Willard Suitcases / Charles F. / Update
I’ve been busy with the Hope and Feathers exhibit and quite busy with my freelance work, but the suitcases project is never far from my mind.
I am working on an interesting collaboration on Charles’ cases and hope to have some exciting news soon.
He had an interesting collection of ties.
There are quite a few Penny postcards in the collection as well as some interesting hand- written notes. You can see the New York State Museum’s catalogue number (in pencil) on the upper right side of the white paper.
Thank you all for following this project. I will be devoting a ton of time to the suitcases later this month as I continue to develop ideas for getting the photos out to a wide audience. And Peter Carroll, Deb Hoard, and I are beginning to work hard on a preliminary short film which we can send to funders for the larger documentary that we plan to produce.
Ford Thunderbird LX “Roadster”
I have posted here and here about my interest in how American car companies choose to name special models of their cars. It seems like this was really popular back in the 80s and 90s.
This T-Bird belongs to our friends Suzan and Max, and they love this car! They are grad students from the Netherlands and did what many Europeans do when buying a vehicle in the States; get some serious “Detroit Iron”. I couldn’t find a specific reference to this Roadster model. I’ll have to ask Max if this is the 6 or 8 cylinder, and what year it is.
I really love the Thunderbird logo. It looks very Southwestern.
It appears in several places around the car. None more beautiful than the one in the grille on the front bumper.
I wouldn’t think those are real turquoise stones.
I tried to explain to Suzan that the term “roadster” doesn’t exactly fit this style of vehicle. This particular model is from the 10th generation of T-birds which were produced starting in 1989.
Willard Suitcases / Rodrigo L Final
This morning I uploaded the last of the photographs of Rodrigo’s possessions. His cases were really interesting and you can check them all out here.
Rodrigo maintained a strong connection his native Philippines, and also had an interesting collection of books.
There were several items pressed between the pages of a few of them.
This hat was pretty cool and the white object at the bottom seems to be shark’s teeth strung together into some sort of necklace.
Peg and I shot our last suitcase on Monday the 9th of November 2015. I will be editing that work in a day or two, and that will be it as far as what was in the New York State Museum collection. Craig Williams seems to remember that there are a few cases that never went to the Museum that are in the Romulus Historical Society. If so, we’ll try to track those down and photograph them. I photographed the first case (Freda B) on the 17th of March 2011, and this has been quite an amazing ride. I just want to thank all of you who follow the project for all the good wishes, support, and interest. Now that the editing is just about done, I’ll be spending much of my time moving on to the next stage. I’ll also take a minute to thank Peggy Ross again for her continued help. I couldn’t have done this without her.
Willard Suitcases / Rodrigo L.
Rodrigo was an extremely literate man. His collection of books was so interesting.
He was a writer as well, as this editorial from his Salt Lake High School yearbook illustrates.
Rodrigo’s collection of books tells us so much about his view of the world.
From reading his writings, I got the sense that he was a bit lonely, and deeply spiritual.
The autographs page of his yearbook had only his signature.
I love the logo for Oliver R. Meredith’s Trunk Factory. I looked for information online about the business, and didn’t find much about the company, but did come across this great gallery of photographs of trunk manufacturers.
From time to time I like to post a nice photo of Peggy Ross, whom I can never thank enough for her help throughout the years that we have spent documenting the collection of suitcases. I literally could not (and would not) have done this work without her help.
Thanks for following. Check out all of Rodrigo’s collection here. Moving on to Michael B. tomorrow.
Willard Suitcases / Margaret D / 17 June 2015
I am pretty sure that this was the last day we photographed any of Margaret D’s things. It is possible that as I move through the editing process I will come across more of her possessions, but I think this is it.
It was a mixed bag of items that we saw on this day.
Here is more of her work with a needle and thread.
This little button caught my eye.
I did a quick internet search for “TU-TEE” and found nothing. This almost never happens anymore. A commercial product with an interesting concept and zilch! “This game is something different, and enjoyed by old and young alike. It is replacing progressive card games in many sections of the country.” Apparently not in that many sections of the country or there would be some evidence of it. (Edit. As I was reading this post once it was public, I realized that the type face on the TU-TEE box looks exactly like the one I use for all of these posts. It is Palatino, and I’ve been using it for years. What a strange coincidence.)
This cup and saucer are so delicate and lovely.
So, that’s it for Margaret. Hers is the most complete collection of household and personal items in all of the cases that I shot, and in a funny way, it is difficult to move on to other Willard patients. Up next though is Herman G, whose story is fascinating in its own way. Thanks for following. You can see all of the cases here, and all of Margaret’s here. (Don’t forget to click on the “500” button at the bottom of the page, as I think the default page only shows the first 25. And as there are over 600 photos in her collection, you have to click on the “next” button to see the rest.)
Anna Lucille Earley, Willard Nurse
I got a call a few weeks ago from Craig Williams telling me that a trunk had been discovered in the attic of the Covert Funeral Home in Ovid, NY that belonged to a woman who was a nurse at Willard in the early part of the 20th Century.
At that time Craig wasn’t too sure of many of the details but thought I might be interested if anything came of it.
Craig has been working at the Romulus Historical Society with Peggy Ellsworth who worked at Willard and has been a great friend to the suitcases project. Peg has been the go-to person for all things Willard since the institution closed in 1995.
Last Friday Paul McPherson who is the current director of the funeral home brought the trunk to the historical society for Craig and Peg to have a look. They were really enthused and Craig called to see if I could take a few photos as he unpacked the items and started to conserve and catalogue the collection.
The contents of the trunk are in great shape, and it is amazing to see how well preserved the items are.
I love seeing these old commercial products in their early packaging.
There were several mounted photographs in the trunk, as well as this envelope which contain a large number of photographic negatives.
Craig scanned a few and the quality is amazing.
The Willard baseball team was almost certainly made up of staff, and not patients. But one has to wonder if any of the patients ever made it onto the diamond.
I think this scan was from a print. In addition to having worked at Willard as a nurse, she was a graduate of the institution’s school of nursing. Craig and Peg are looking at the images to try to figure out which one in the photos is Anna. None are identified on the back, so it might be quite a job.
The above photo is especially exciting, as the building in the background is the sheltered workshop where the suitcases were stored in the attic and were rediscovered in 1995. The collection of cases dates from 1910 to 1965 and Anna was at Willard starting in the late teens, so it is very likely that she worked with some of the owners.
As we found in many of the suitcases there is a broad range of items in Anna’s trunk; she had saved things that can tell a fairly complete story of her life, and more broadly, what life at Willard was like in the 1920s.
This box contains a lot of personal correspondence, including some very interesting postcards.
It took a minute to figure out this one.
It became clear once we saw the “soldier’s mail” postmark. Let’s hope H. C. Norris made it through the war safely.
As a nurse at Willard, she would have lived on the grounds and received her mail there.
This inscription is especially touching and a bit mysterious.
Craig and I didn’t have much time to go through the notebooks, but this is a huge trove of original source material that will be interesting to study once everything is catalogued.
Perhaps the most intriguing is this small diary from 1918 which contains day to day accounts of Anna’s life at Willard. To the left is a playbill for “Farmer’s Daughter” which played at Hadley Hall on the Willard grounds.
Anna’s Student’s Note Book is pretty interesting.
Her hand writing is very readable. I didn’t see any crossed out sections as I flipped through the pages.
This small brooch is pretty.
The trunk itself is is great shape.
Anna is buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Ovid. Craig took this photo of her gravestone.
The Romulus Historical Society will be putting an exhibit together of the trunk and contents sometime soon. The museum is located in the town of Willard and is only open until the end of September. It is not clear if anything will happen before then, but Peggy is eager for the collection to see the light of day. I’ll update here when I know details. There is obviously a ton of work to be done researching Anna’s life, but this is really an amazing find.
Special thanks go to Paul McPherson for contacting the historical society with this incredible look into the life of Anna. A find like this really brings history alive. It will be interesting to see what develops once everything is conserved and catalogued. And as always thanks to Peggy Ellsworth for her tireless work in remembering the patients and staff at Willard, and to Craig Williams for keeping me in the loop.
Willard Suitcases / Margaret D / 2 March 2015
I just uploaded another batch of photos to Margaret’s page. Check it out if you get the chance. (Make sure you click on the “view all” button; the default view is 25 per page.)
I think this little Devon Violets vase is beautiful.
This lone pill was wrapped in the paper on which it is placed. It is difficult to read the pencil writing but it looks like amid(something) barbital.
Having seen other photographs of her, I am quite certain that it is Margaret in these shots.
Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks for following.
Willard Suitcases / Chapin House / NAMI Waco
I took this photo in the early 1980s at the very beginning of my connection with Willard. It is still one of my favorites from the “Silent Voices” project.
Here are a few shots from my recent uploads to the suitcases site.
I’m not exactly sure what the white fabric object is in Kenneth Q’s case, but it is interesting. The orange toothbursh is kind of nice.
Elizabeth C’s dress is so beautiful.
The cotton fabric is soft and wonderful.
There are 3 different places on the above photograph where I had to obscure Amelia’s surname, and it still makes me sad every time I have to do so. The Office of Mental Health pr guy told me a few years ago that it was necessary due to the stigma of mental illness. It is precisely that attitude that prolongs that stigma; the Willard patients deserve to be recognized as being more than just patients at a New York State asylum.
On Wednesday, I fly to Texas to present the suitcases project at a dinner sponsored by NAMI Waco. Here is a link to the event. If you are in the area, it would be great to see you and make a connection.
Thanks for following.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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