2017 Smith College Bulb Show
Cristine and I always look forward to the Smith College Bulb Show. Always in mid March, it is a lovely reminder that Spring is not far off.
There are always a ton of very exotic tulips.
It ends tomorrow, so if you live in the Valley and want to see it, get moving!
Willard Suitcases / John R / Talks
When I talk about the project I am often asked if I have a favorite suitcase. My answer is always the same; from the start, I have seen the collection as a whole and no case stands out to me. But I do have some favorite photographs from the project, and this is one of them.
The dark glasses are pretty cool.
This was the first time I had ever seen an actual Shinola tin.
We saw several of these Yardley Talc containers.
I have uploaded the rest of the photos from John’s case at the suitcases site. Check it out!
There are two upcoming events near to me where I will be talking about the suitcases. I’ll have copies of the second Kickstarter reward book for sale at the Hadley, MA Barnes & Noble this Saturday the 18th. I’ll be there from 2.00 – 5.00 PM. Come by and say hi. And on Monday I will be giving a talk at the Amherst Woman’s Club. I expect to start at 1.00 PM.
Thanks for following!
Willard Patient Dress / Part 2
This is the back of the dress that I posted the other day.
There is more of the beautiful orange thread on this side, as well as some very fanciful figures.
In the image below, I love how the two horizontal lines at the bottom of the dress seem to me to indicate water. And is that a spigot just above the lines?
Here is the reverse side of the above figure. I was thinking at the time we were shooting that people who do embroidery might like to see this view.
This figure is similar to one on the front of the dress.
The faces she does are so expressive.
Here is another detail of a hand, and I am not sure what is represented coming out of what appears to be a pocket.
The figure below in the box looks like either a kind of face or something from the depths of the ocean.
Is this another face?
Her use of lines is very cool.
I have been trying to figure out how the grid below fits in to the overall design. At first I thought it represented a building, but I am not so sure.
And here are just a few more shots of the reverse side of the dress.
Thanks for checking this out. I will continue my efforts to find the name of the Willard patient who created this. In the meantime you can continue to see the latest uploads of the cases at the Willard Suitcases site.
Willard Patient Dress / Part 1
There are quite a few items in the Willard collection at the New York State Museum that are not part of my suitcases documentation. These “institutional” pieces were too numerous to photograph, but this embroidered dress just had to be documented. The work was done by a patient who is not identified, but I am in touch with some folks who worked at Willard who might know who created this.
This will be a photo heavy post with less text than in my usual posts, but the details in the dress are amazing and I wanted to share as many as I could.
It wasn’t just the amazing designs; the precision of the embroidery knocked us out.
There were a good number of cats on the dress.
This one seems to be hovering over a plant.
Not sure what is going oh above, but the orange is such a beautiful color.
This looks to me like a cat but what is it doing? Any thoughts?
I love how this person’s hair is rendered.
The orange flower in her hair is lovely.
These little flowers are so delicate.
The watch and ring on this figure are such a nice touch.
Thanks so much to Peg Ross for helping me set the dress up in order to photograph it. I am terrible at stuff like this, and as usual, she really made it happen. And if I remember correctly, Connie Houde from the museum was also there to assist.
I hope to post the back of the dress (I want to keep calling it a shift; is that correct?) sometime soon. I leave Atlanta later today but will head out to the Botanical Garden before my flight. Thanks for following.
Atlanta
I’m in Atlanta for a few days.
Cristine is at the annual CIES conference and I am editing photos in the morning and exploring in the afternoons.
This was the entrance to a parking garage in Buckhead. I think it was connected to an AMC movie theatre complex that advertised that you could eat a meal and watch a movie at the same time. What is this world coming to? (I just checked and here’s a link.)
This is the Peachtree Center MARTA stop. I love that the walls are left to show the exposed bedrock.
For those of you who might be interested, I post mostly goofy stuff on instagram. Just go to the top of this page, and under the sites links on the top right, hit the “Jon’s Instagram” link.
Olive in the Woods
We had a very dry Summer and Autumn this past year and there has been hardly any water in the woods above the house. Olive has really missed splashing around. After the heavy snow of two weeks ago, the warm temperatures, and the recent rains, she is now back in luck.
She is amazing when it comes to chasing sticks.
It’s colder today so she is spending time next to the wood stove.
Wishing you all a great week.
Ovid / Willard Cemetery / NAMI Waco
I had a great meeting at the Edith B. Ford Library in Ovid, NY to talk about the possibility of working on an oral history project with former Willard employees. Peter Carroll and I drove up from Ithaca this morning and met with Shannon O’Connor and Monica Kelly who both are doing amazing things at the library. Monica is building an archive of Willard materials, and if anyone who reads this has any records or photographs related to the asylum, you should really contact her.
Afterwards Pete and I drove to the Holy Cross Cemetery on Gilbert Road.
Recently, a local group raised funds and erected a monument to Willard folks who died at the institution and are buried at Holy Cross. I am not exactly sure what the problem is, but some people have objected to it, and so the monument has been covered up since just after it was unveiled. The issue of naming former patients and staff continues to come up, and is still a problem on many levels. I’ll be eager to find out what really happened here.
After leaving Holy Cross, we drove over to the Willard Cemetery which is down the road and across the street from the asylum. This is such an indescribably moving place for me. It was a really beautiful late Winter day and the idea that 5,776 former patients are buried here in unmarked graves always touches me deeply.
The site is very well looked after, and the area around some of the few remaining numbered cast iron markers has recently been cleared of brush.
And it is always nice to see the monument to Lawrence Mocha, who as a patient, dug by hand over 1500 of the graves.
I found out today that I have been invited to Waco, Texas to be the keynote speaker at the annual NAMI Waco dinner and gala. The event is the evening of Thursday, 18th May and if you live anywhere nearby, I would love to meet you.
Willard Suitcases / Issac and Alice
I continue to make good progress uploading to the suitcases site. Issac’s case had just a few items, but the buttons are nice, as well as the safety pins. I especially like the folding coat hangar.
Peggy and I were thrilled to open Alice’s case and see the beautiful lining.
Check out the latest at willardsuitcases.com.
Thanks for following.
Paperwhites
Just before Christmas I bought the last four paperwhite bulbs at Hadley Garden Center. As they were the last ones, they looked a bit ratty. Since we were gone most of January, Cris didn’t put them into the jar of rocks until just after we got home. The first flowers came out today. A full foot of snow outside but lovely to have these beauties in the house.
I spoke to my friend John Wilson in Stratford-upon-Avon late last week and he said the daffodils are already coming up over there. I guess we’ll have to wait at least 6 more weeks before we see any here.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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