Saint John Fisher College Suitcases Exhibit
Hi Everyone. Just a quick announcement about an exhibit of the suitcase photos at Saint John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. It has been amazing working with the folks there, especially Ryan Thibodeau and Cathy Sweet. The seminar on Saturday the 19th should be amazing and will be streamed on Zoom. I’ll post a link to the url soon.
Best and thanks, Jon
June 2021 Update
Hello Everyone,
Interesting things are still happening with the suitcases project. Tomorrow, 26th June 2021, Hit The Ground Running Dance Theatre Company will be doing a one time only screening of “Suitcases”. This is a dance piece coreographed by Michael Heatley and it is amazing. Michael and I have been working together for several years on this project. It was due to tour around the UK just after Covid hit and had to be postponed more or less indefinitely. Dance City Newcastle is the sponsoring venue and now that Covid is less of a problem, Michael is arranging for a UK tour with dates to be announced soon. Here is the link to purchase tickets for tomorrow’s showing. 7:30 PM UK Summer Time, 2:30 PM US Eastern Time, 11:30 AM Pacific Time. Peter Carroll has produced a beautiful introductory video, and after the performance, Michael and I will be taking questions via Zoom. Please help support Michael’s incredible work by watching. Thanks, and best wishes to you all.
A Tale of Two Cemeteries / New School Talk Announcement
Last week when Peter and I were driving back from Cleveland/Meadville we decided to take back roads up to the Thruway. I had especially wanted to go through North Warren, PA to see the Warren State Hospital. It is only about an hour from Meadville and is a really amazing facility.
It is still an active psychiatric hospital so I wasn’t allowed to photograph, but I was actually more interested in the cemetery.
I have written often about the issue of names in relation to my suitcases project. Especially how the State of New York prohibits the use of full names of the patients in respect to my work and in regards to the hospital cemeteries.
Here in Pennsylvania patient’s names are on the grave stones.
If you were to drive north about 60 miles into New York State and go to the cemetery at the Gowanda Psychiatric Center, you will find an entirely different story.
While there are a few graves marked with names, the vast majority only have numbers. This is mostly due to New York State’s primitive privacy laws, which supposedly protect families from the “shame” of having a relative who was institutionalized.
There are groups throughout New York that are working very hard to memorialize patients who are buried in hospital cemeteries. There is a lovely Helen Keller quote on the memorial stone above, and this cemetery is very well maintained.
It just seems so wrong to me that New York State continues to stigmatize folks who were patients at state hospitals by basically denying anyone (including families) the knowledge that they existed. Here is a link to another post I did that gives a bit more background on the issue of names. Just don’t try to contact John B. Allen at NYS OMH. He no longer works there.
Thanks for following. I’ll be presenting the suitcases project at the New School on Thursday the 12th of September at 6:00 PM. Here is a link to the announcement, but as of today, the time listed is off. I start speaking at 6:00 and it ends at 8:00. I really hope to see some of you there. It will be interesting.
Willard Suitcases / Charles F. Grave / Ithaca
I have known for a long time now that Charles F. was buried in Ithaca.
The photo of his grave is the last image that I need for the book Ilan Stavans and I are doing for SUNY Press.
Ilan’s essay is beyond amazing, and I am really happy with the section of the book that has the two of us talking about our feelings about Charles and to the contents of his suitcase. / Searching online I was able to find the location of his grave, but I had no map of the cemetery by which to determine the exact location. This morning I went to the Ithaca Town Hall where a very nice and helpful person gave me the information that I needed.
There are two sections of the cemetery that are reserved for the burial of Jewish folks. When I saw these graves I knew I was getting close.
Charles is buried at the most Southeastern corner of the cemetery.
The fact that (by New York State law) I have to obscure the surnames of the patients is really pissing me off these days. Charles died in 1950 and I think it continues to stigmatize patients to deny who they were. I hear so regularly from family members seeking information about relatives who lived at Willard, and I feel terrible that I can’t help out. New York State law supercedes Federal HIPAA laws about what can be revealed to families and other interested parties. This can only be changed through the legislature, and I am really interested in finding a legislator in Albany to introduce a bill to bring New York State in line with Federal law (the Feds put the cap at 50 years after death, and for New York State the cap is forever). To cover myself here I put these leaves over his name but IT JUST FEELS SO WRONG.
Here’s a view from another angle. Much more pleasing that the previous one showing the buildings in the background.
Peter Carroll came along to shoot some B-Roll as I worked today. We are slowly moving ahead with the documentary on the project. It’s still very early stages, but we are hoping to put up a Kickstarter appeal sometime in the late Summer in order to be able to produce a short piece which we can then preview to funders.
Thanks for following along everyone. I am posting almost daily to the @willardsuitcases Instagram account, so if you haven’t checked it out, please do.
Willard / Meadville Trip / Conneaut Lake Park
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After living in D.C. for the past 5 years, our son Peter has moved home for a bit to take some classes and do GRE prep. It is nice to have him around. Soon after he returned to Massachusetts we planned a quick trip to Meadville and Pittsburgh to catch a Pirates game.
The Willard employee reunion dish-to-pass event was happening on the Saturday that we drove out, so he and I stopped to say hi to old friends. We had time afterwards to go to the cemetery which is always a very moving experience.
The sign at the Jewish part of the cemetery is looking a bit run down and could use some help.
The little stone marker is still there.
Here is one of the numbered graves in that part of the cemetery. It makes me so sad that #43 has no name. The state of New York could remedy this if they cared enough to publish the names of the patients who are buried here.
Before Peter and I continued on to Meadville, we stopped by the Romulus Historical Society building to see the recent exhibit updates. It was nice to see Craig Williams and Debbie Nichols who had been a nursing student and then a nurse at Willard.
Here is Debbie sitting next to her actual uniform. It is a great little museum and well worth a visit.
I’ve been stopping at the Angola Rest Area on the New York Thruway for as long as I can remember. It is so nice to walk over the highway to get to the main building.
The first stop was a visit to Eddie’s Footlongs on the lake road outside of Meadville. I had 2 with the works.
Next stop Hank’s Frozen Custard. I had 2 here as well. Chocolate.
On Sunday morning we got word that the Pirate’s game was cancelled due to rain, so we checked out of the motel and drove to Allegheny College to see the tree we planted in honor of my Dad.
My sister Karen chose a lovely Winter King, and it is thriving.
It was a rainy Sunday morning and after breakfast at the Meadville Market House Grill, we drove out for a last Hank’s and then around Conneaut Lake. The amusement park was not surprisingly deserted, but it was strange that country music was playing through the loudspeakers.
There was no one there to yell at us to stay off the rides, so we wandered and took some pictures.
Ugh, clowns.
On the left above is the Blue Streak roller coaster. I was never keen on riding it, but once Judy Jacoby who was my girlfriend for a short time convinced me to go on it. It was fine.
It is difficult to know for sure, but I think the park is still open. But it was a bit eerie to walk around with the music blaring and nobody else there.
The coaster car is pretty classic.
A Century Flyer made in Dayton, Ohio.
Here’s the entry into the first tunnel.
The master controls. ↑
Peter and I actually rode the Devil’s Den many years ago. The “Infamous Gum Wall!! is just that. People started sticking chewing gum on the wall when the ride slowed down and it became….well infamous.
Cristine and I are off to Nepal on Friday. I hope to post regularly from Kathmandu.
Cheers everyone and thanks for following.
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.
Julianne Wick Davis / Grand Central Station
The evening at Joe’s Pub was amazing. Julianne Wick Davis’ song cycle based on my suitcases photos was really incredible. I was completely blown away by her talent and drive to get this going. The project is still in the early stages of development, but it is so exciting to have been an inspiration to her. / I was so thrilled that my buddy from Wittenberg, Chris Brigham came out from Chicago for the event. It was so great to see her.
I am on the Metro North train heading back to New Haven which goes in and out of Grand Central Station.
It is quite a place.
The suitcases site has been having a slew of problems of late. We are close to getting it sorted and it is currently back up and running. It appears that it has been innundated with bot attacks attempting to take over the site. Thanks to Steve Fox at Born Digital for all his hard work. It has been very frustrating and costly, but fingers crossed we are working towards a resolution. Cheers all, and thanks for following.
Willard Suitcases / Editing
This was the first case I photographed. It was the 17th of March 2011. Craig Williams had given me permission to gain access to the collection and I was very excited. I remember setting up my wrinkled background and fiddling with my lights. It struck me at the time that it would be interesting to document the entire process of shooting the cases, including what they looked like after the museum had wrapped them back up after the conservation process.
This is part of what I saw when I finally got the case open. Quite a way to start the project. This is what I posted about that first day.
Today at about 2.30 I finished editing all of the cases that we have shot, and uploaded the final photographs to the suitcases site. This case belonge to Lawrence R. I especially like the headline in the Democrat and Chronicle.
This day has been a long time in coming. We will see what happens with the project in the fullness of time, but I am very excited and happy to have made it this far.
Connie Houde was kind enough to take this picture of Peg and me on that last day of shooting. I think champagne might have been involved.
There are too many folks to thank for all of the support, encouragement, and love that I have felt since I began photographing the suitcases in 2011. But I think of you all the time. Thank you all.
Willard Suitcases / Rodrigo L again
I am back to editing more of Rodrigo L’s papers. This is an amazing photo postcard. / Rodrigo lived in Salt Lake City during his high school years. Many of his yearbooks are in his collection as well as a ton of materials related to his Pilipino experience in the US .
He came to the American West sometime in the early part of the 20th Century, which makes me wonder what his experience adapting to his new life was like.
You can check out the latest at the suitcases site.
I have just three more shoots to edit. I have a feeling that when I finish that part of the project I will be very emotional and a little bit at sea. Still lots to do though, including finding a publisher and museums / galleries for exhibits. I started shooting the cases in March of 2011. It has been quite a run. Thanks for following.
Willard Suitcases / Madeline C
I have posted about Madeline before and her possessions represent a very interesting life before she came to Willard.
Throughout this project I have consciously tried to avoid obvious links between the objects in the collection and any sort of connection to being institutionalized, but I found it interesting that this was the only recording among Madeline’s things.
She came to Willard with a fairly complete record of her life in New York City, including her time studying at Columbia University and Hunter College.
She seemed to be interested in philosophy. There were quite a few references to Bergson in her papers.
Her handwriting was really lovely.
Her diaries were especially complete.
I searched online for this poem thinking that she might have copied it as an exercise in writing in English (her first language was French), but nothing turned up.
In any event, it is an incredible piece of writing.
It is especially interesting how well her life was documented in photographs, and that most of the images also had their original negatives. Looking at the dates in her diaries, many of these were taken in the 1920s.
The fox stole around her neck in the picture on the right is something that one doesn’t see anymore.
I have stayed in the Prince George Hotel on W. 27th Street twice in my life. Once in high school with my friends Jay, Jeff, and Dennis. That was an interesting trip! And once sometime in the 80s shortly before it became an SRO. Quite interesting as well.
You can check out the photos of Madeline’s cases at the Willard Suitcases site. Click on “The Cases”, scroll to the bottom and click on Madeline C. Be sure to click “view all” as there are many more than 25 images. The site was hacked into recently and everything seems to be sorted now. Huge thanks to Steve Fox at Born Digital Web Design for getting it fixed. He’s the man if you need a photo site set up.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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