Jon Crispin's Notebook

Peg and I started in on the returned Exploratorium cases yesterday, and it was great to get back to shooting.

Herman’s case was particularly interesting to me as most of his things related to photography.  It will be somewhat difficult to read this label on a computer monitor, but it reveals quite a bit about him.  He had been living in Sonyea, NY at the Craig Colony for Epileptics.  Lin Stuhler’s site has a good description of Craig here.  There is a note on this label stating “List of ??? [artifacts, contents?, I can’t quite read it] on reverse side of this cover”.

And here is that list.  You can see Herman’s signature on the top sheet that acknowledges receipt.

There were three lenses in the case, including this lovely Bausch and Lomb Tessar.

This was the 1930s idea of a light meter.

The collection includes quite a bit of correspondence from The American School of Photography in Chicago.  It seemed to be a well organized “learn at home” way of becoming a photographer.  Since all of the envelopes that contained the promotional materials were addressed to Herman in Sonyea, NY, I have to assume that he was learning to be a photographer while living at the Craig Colony.

For me, Herman’s story is particularly touching, and not just because of the photography connection.  I purposely don’t include too much of myself on this site, but sometimes I feel the need to open up a bit about the emotional impact of shooting these cases.  Our son Peter is an amazing guy.  He was a preemie, and spent months in the hospital after he was born.  He has cerebral palsy and a history of epilepsy.  He lives independently in DC and is a truly remarkable and inspirational person. I simply can’t imagine what his life would have been like had he been born in the 1920s, and when I think of Herman and his life in institutions, it breaks my heart.