Ellis Island
I had the rarest of opportunities yesterday. Pieper is giving a presentation on Ellis Island about the construction of the original buildings and he had me come out with him to take photographs to illustrate his talk. It was an incredible day, and I was mostly in a state of near rapture. I have always wanted to photograph the unrestored buildings on the island and am so grateful to Pieper and Darcy Hartman of Save Ellis Island for the chance. This photograph was taken in what I believe is called the Doctor’s (or Surgeon’s) residence. I’ll post more in the days to come. Here is some information on the talk: “The Actual Bricks and Mortar Story; Building Ellis Island’s Hospitals”. 10.30 to 12.30 on 15 April, 2012. It is open to the public but limited to 50 participants. For information, email information@saveellisisland.org For anyone interested in these buildings this is a unique chance to don a hardhat and take a tour of the usually off limits parts of the island.
Willard Suitcase #13
I have been spending a lot of time in Albany photographing the cases. I have been a bit overwhelmed lately and have had a hard time deciding what to post as an update. There is so much material and most of it is fascinating. I have been averaging at least one shoot a week, and it still feels that I have a long way to go.
Just as a case this one is nice. Very well made and quite stylish.
It belonged to Steffan K. (although his first name was spelled differently on some items. On one envelope from a druggest it was written as Steve.)
I especially appreciated the way that the staff wrapped and preserved the items.
My interest in the wrappings and the bows has actually increased. The three women that did most of the work each had a different style. Sarah Jastremsky, Christine Allen, and Karen Chambers worked for months going through the cases cataloguing and then stabilizing each item. At some point I’ll get try to get together with them and find out who did what.
These items seem so personal to me. The calendar was from 1929.
I never intend to fetishize the items in the cases, but this clock just blew me away.
It is a very early example of a Westclox Big Ben. Steffan clearly brought it with him when he arrived at Willard, and my guess is that it never left the box. Both the box and the clock are in perfect condition. It just made me sad to think that it was packed to go to along with him and he might have never used it there.
As I spend more time with the suitcases and talk to people who worked at Willard, I am becoming quite convinced that the reason the cases were never thrown away is due to the fact that the employees developed close and lasting relationships to the patients. When they were discharged or died, the personal connection was so strong that it made it impossible to just toss them out. Anyway, that’s just my theory, and I know the whole issue of how the state chose to treat the mentally ill is a complicated one.
Thanks as usual to The New York State Museum, and especially Craig Williams for allowing me access to the cases and facilitating this project. And to Peggy Ross for her great help with the process of shooting and re-wrapping each case.
Hanley Road, Columbia County, NY
I couldn’t count the number of times that I have been on Interstate 90 in New York State. About 2 years ago, I started noticing this view from the Westbound lane just before the turnoff to Albany. There was something about the look of this rural road that always made me happy. About a year ago I knew that I wanted to photograph it, but stopping on the highway seemed a bit foolhardy. On Tuesday I was at the museum shooting suitcases and realized that I would have time to take a side trip on the way home. I have a New York State Atlas & Gazeteer in my car so I pulled it out an figured out where I could access this road. I am quite directionally challenged, but after some trial and error, I found the spot. The above view is taken from the bottom of Hanley Road where it forms a T with State Route 32. From where I took this picture it is Columbia County, but up the hill it becomes Rensselaer County. Coming from Albany, I went to the town of Nassau on Route 20, turned south on 203 and then left onto Hanley. It is really beautiful on the top part of the road; lovely farms with sizable ponds.
This view is looking West on SR 32. The semi is on the eastbound section of the 90. As I was heading home, I drove through the small town of Chatham and was happy to see a church that I had photographed for Craig Williams years ago.
Grand Central
Here’s another shot from Grand Central. I was a bit disorientated because I have been up on this balcony on the East side of the station many times. It always used to be just an open space with people milling around and taking pictures just like this one. It is an Apple Store now. As soon as you walk up the stairs, there is a greeter asking if you need help. Things change, I guess. A very long time ago Kodak used most of the wall behind me for a giant Kodachrome image. Now Kodak is bankrupt and Apple is in charge. Interesting.
Oyster Bar
Sorry, it’s been a while. / I took the Metro North train from New Haven to New York on Friday. I could have taken Amtrak from Springfield, but it goes into Penn Station and I prefer Grand Central. I arranged to arrive with time to spare, so I had some Cotuits and a pan roast at the Oyster Bar. / Just after my Kickstarter page went up, Zoe Crossland from Columbia University contacted me about coming down to give a seminar on the Willard suitcases project. She connected me with Brian Boyd who set it all up, and at 5.30 I was sitting in a room with a great group of faculty and students from the anthropology and archeology departments. I was hoping for lots of feedback and dialogue and wasn’t disappointed. I showed selected photos from what I have done so far and we had a great discussion. / Had a very productive day at the museum last Thursday and will be back shooting in the next few days.
Hudson River Psychiatric Center
I was in Poughkeepsie on Tuesday photographing at the recently closed Hudson River Psychiatric Center. I have been there many times and it was a bit sad to know that the facility was closing. / When I was shooting shuttered asylum buildings for my earlier projects, they were all from the 19th century. Those buildings and their contents came from such a markedly different time which was part of the reason it was such compelling work for me. When I was thinking about my photographs from Tuesday I realized that in the future, someone will look at this photo and have the same feeling. To our eyes, this isn’t such an unusual scene; fifty from now it will seem truly exotic.
Willard Suitcase #12
This is Eleanor G’s large trunk. It is one of the few cases in the collection that is unwrapped. I have posted some of her other cases before. I have edited the photos in this post quite tightly; there are well over 20 that I will eventually use, but due to time and space limitations, I’ll show just a few.
This is a classic footlocker design with a removable top shelf.
I think she used this calendar notebook as a Christmas or birthday book. You can read what seems like a list presents she either gave or wanted to give to people.
Eleanor sewed a lot. Here is a section of a pattern.
Above is some of the wrapping of the items in the bottom of the case.
These two movie ticket stubs were the only things in this little red clutch purse.
I like the design of this little vanity. The use of the stars is especially tasteful.
The little lavender fabric button below the pills is such a lovely color. These items were inside the vanity.
This is a closeup of a huge roll of wrapping paper that really got to me. I so wanted to take the outer seal off to look at a whole sheet, but it was taped on and I was worried about ruining it.
The bottom of the trunk was full of letters to Eleanor. She clearly had saved these from her life outside of Willard. At first I thought the address on the bottom right envelope said “White House”, but as I enlarged the writing, it looked more like “White Home”. I’m not sure if it was a residential facility or just an apartment house. (Early on in this project, an interesting fellow from somewhere out west was researching some of the materials and came up with some really cool historical links. Tom, if you are still following, I’d love to hear from you.)
I plan to be back at the museum on Thursday to shoot more cases. An tomorrow I will be at the recently closed Hudson River Psychiatric Center shooting some interiors. Thanks for following this project.
Pinball
I started playing pinball at Gabby Avenue News in Meadville when I was in junior high. Almost every morning before school I would try to get in a few games before dashing off to homeroom. After that, I played mostly at the College Pizza Villa on North Main Street. When I got to Wittenberg, I was happy to see that there were 4 or 5 machines in the basement of the student union. To say the least, I was a regular down there. With the advent of video games, the popularity of pinball faded, and the machines that were being made were not so interesting to me. They were way too complicated with multiple levels and lots of ramps and extra bells and whistles. For me, the heyday of the pins was from the mid 60s to the mid 70s. / Peter has always been interested in my younger days and he loves to hear me tell stories about growing up in Meadville. He especially liked the pinball related anecdotes. / Some time ago my brother got a machine for his basement. It is made by Stern and is the Elvis model. It is one of the later designs, and initially it didn’t interest me so much. But whenever we would visit, Pete would head down and spend lots of time playing. Eventually I became hooked and we now play quite a bit together. Because of his CP, he plays both flippers with his right hand, and he is amazing good. / Union doesn’t regularly have any machines, but during special weekend events they bring in one or two that are set up to play for free. Cristine and I were visiting him yesterday and he and I went over to Reamer and played this one. Like the Elvis game, it is of the modern variety with way too much going on, but as you can see in the high score list, I totally killed it. Score inflation has gotten out of hand though; over a billion points is just wrong. At some point during my big game, Carlene Carter’s “Every Little Thing” started playing and after we were done, I was surprised to see in the credits that the female voice that pops up on occasion was hers. Weird, but I went to iTunes today and bought the song.
Pearl and her bowl
In many ways Pearl is a true retriever. She is not obsessed with balls or sticks but she really loves her bowl. Since she was young she would eat and then pick it up and carry it around the house. We never know where it will end up, and sometimes in the morning it is a pain to have to look for it. About a year ago, I began to make her go find it before I would feed her. She is mostly good at it, but sometimes she brings me one of her stuffed animals instead. But she has figured out that bringing me the bowl means she gets to eat so there is some incentive for her. The only problem is that at random times throughout the day she will get the bowl and carry it around expecting a meal. I can mostly ignore it, but once in a great while I succumb to her cuteness and give in.
GoPro
Cris dropped me off in Harrisburg where my good pal Peter Carroll picked me up on Friday morning. We drove down to DC to spend some time with his family. On our way we stopped in Dillsburg, PA at a great diner for a bite to eat. Peter and I have travelled together so many times, and it is always fun. He got this little GoPro video camera recently and has been goofing around with it. It also takes amazing stills.
Over the years we have taken so many goofy pictures of each other. Here’s another one. We didn’t try any of the cakes in the case, but I was sorely tempted.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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