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 February 2015
Quite a few of the Willard residents brought small carved dogs with them. This looks like a little Skye Terrier. The thread collar is quite touching.
The doggie theme is repeated here. I believe that this is a strong thread wrapped around this paper that is used for bead work.
There were thousands of these small (glass?) beads.
I often tried to document Peg’s work and the care we took in putting everything back the way we found it. These beads were difficult to wrangle, but I am pretty sure we got them all back in the bag.
This photo really gets to me for some reason. Check the comments for a description of this process as my pal Dhyan will probably chime in. She has been following the project since early days, and I really appreciate her knowledge of anything to do with fabric and yarn. Thanks Dhyan!
Here’s some string wedged into a hair comb. So many questions.
I think we decided this is a post card of the well known dancer Ann Miller. (Peg’s mom helped identify her if I remember correctly.) I was pretty sure it was Bess Myerson.
I have started using the date of shooting in the title of these Margaret posts as it is the only way to differentiate the various posts from one another. Check out the full uploads of Margaret’s things here. There is a LOT more of her to come.
Willard Suitcases / Joseph A #3
It took a while, but I finally finished editing Joseph’s two trunks. Peg and I worked on them on two different days, three weeks apart and the photos did not end up in a logical sequence. It took me a while to organize them for the suitcases site.
Setting up and shooting cases containing lots of clothes presented challenges. We always strove to make the arrangements look natural, but I in particular dreaded the days where all we had to work with was clothing.
Another shout out to Peggy Ross here. The museum had individually conserved each item and assigned it a unique catalogue number. In instances of larger collections like Joseph’s, the items were stored not in the cases themselves, but in archival museum boxes. Peg was instrumental in helping with the setup by unwrapping each piece and making notes about the box from which the items came, then helping me lay them out.
I would then make a number of wide shots, and finally move in for the details. Once the arrangement was in place, I rarely if ever moved the objects around. I’m not sure why, but it was important to me to maintain the integrity of the original setup. Once I finished shooting, Peg would rewrap each item in the original conservation material and return it back into the museum storage boxes. In retrospect it is not surprising that it took us over five years to shoot all the cases, and that it is taking me another two years to edit everything. I am making great progress though.
I would also mention that the clothing photographs are now among my favorites.
Thanks for following. If you want to see all of the photos from Joseph’s cases, click this link. Don’t forget to click on the “view all” button. The default setting only shows the first 25 images.
Back in Nepal / Eye
Cris and I are back in Nepal where she continues her work on the UNICEF funded early grade reading project through World Education.
It has been an interesting trip. I developed a problem with my right eye when I landed in Dubai, and by the time I got to Kathmandu last Tuesday evening it was clear that something was really wrong. Cris took me directly to CIWEC travel medicine clinic where they set me up with an ophthalmologist early the next morning (Wednesday). Dr. Meenu is a cornea expert, but she wanted me to see the retina guy at the Triphuvan Teaching Hospital. She immediately put me in her car and drove me there. Dr Pratap examined me and saw two spots on my retina that were torn and bleeding. He immediately took me into the laser room and repaired as much of the damage as he could. I saw him this past Monday for a follow-up and he was really happy with the results. Since this whole thing started I have had huge black floaters in the middle of my right (shooting) eye, but they should begin to resolve in the next few months. It was all a bit unsettling, and I am so grateful to Dr. Pratap for caring for me.
Here he is on the left with some of his students.
And with a patient.
I learned pretty quickly that Nepal has a great reputation for eye treatment in the developing world.
Dr. Pratap’s notes.
Here’s the clinic. Officially the B.P. Koirala Lions Centre for Ophthalmic Studies. Note the word “Lions” in the name. The Lions Club is famous for it’s support around eye issues, but I had no idea their reach extended as far as Nepal.
I debated with myself a long time about posting this. Blogs like this are by definition self serving and ego based, but I have always tried to steer away from having it be about me, per se. But weird things can happen when one travels, and I wanted to share my good fortune in getting such prompt and excellent treatment, and to give thanks to all the people here who have helped me. Cris has been a brick through this whole thing and so patient with my worries. I also really want to thank Peggy Ross for getting on the phone and setting up an appointment with my ophthalmologist in Springfield soon after I get back to the States. Her skills at getting through bureaucratic systems are unmatched.
Willard Suitcases / More Labels / Peg
I am just about finished up editing the December 2013 shoots.
The cases were mostly empty, but this newspaper is interesting. It describes a particularly tragic boating accident in Alexandria Bay, NY that occurred in August of 1929. I did a bit or research. Here’s a link to an online newspaper archive that goes into some detail. It wasn’t completely unusual for a suitcase to contain a complete section of a newspaper and little else. I wonder if H. L. had any connection to the Lipe family. (Lipe is not his surname.)
Walter arrived in February of 1945. Nelson Rockford Socks are still available.
Mary Agnes’ case just had this little metal clasp, a shoelace, a hairpin, and a label.
And a pair of “leather-like” boots.
Baker’s case was the only one where we found a bit of “racy” material. Look closely to see the title of the painting. Cheeky!
The storage facility wasn’t always the warmest place to work (except in the summer). Peggy Ross was always such a sport though, and only rarely complained. We ate a lot of hot/sour soup from the local Chinese restaurant for lunch, which helped us get through the day.
Check out the Willard Suitcases site to see the latest. Thanks for following.
Willard Suitcases /Karen Miller / Archives
When I started photographing the suitcases, I really had no idea what I was doing, or where the project would go. Very early on, Craig Williams introduced me to poet and psychiatrist Dr. Karen Miller, and it has been amazing to “share” the suitcases with her over the five plus years that we have had access to the collection. Because of her, I was included in the Exploratorium Exhibit in San Francisco, and because of her, I gained so much insight into the lives of the patients at Willard. She has illuminated the human side of the folks who, in many cases, lived their entire lives at the institution.
I have always seen the suitcases and their contents as a reflection of who the patients were before, and during their time at Willard. Because Karen went through the lengthly and difficult process of gaining access to the medical records of the suitcase owners, she was able to explore the clinical and bureaucratic side of their lives. On many occasions, we worked side by side at the museum storage facility in Rotterdam and were able to talk about what inspired us about the collection.
In many ways, I didn’t want to learn too much about the reason these folks ended up at Willard, since it was important to me to feel a connection to them through their possessions.
So it was with some trepidation that Peg Ross and I made arrangements to spend the day in the New York State Archives photographing some of the massive case files of the suitcases owners. Karen spent quite a bit of time getting Peg and me access to this otherwise closed collection, and I want to thank her so much for her efforts. It was a remarkable day, and so nice to be working close to Karen again.
I am still not sure what I will do with these photos, but I do know that they’ll eventually be a part of whatever happens with my work on the suitcases.
As I was profusely thanking Karen for all that she has contributed to my work on the collection, she remarked on something that really resonated with me. I’ll paraphrase here, but she said something to the effect that the most important things she has done in her life have been in collaboration with others. I feel that so deeply. Without Craig Williams, I would never had been able to begin the project. Without Peggy Ross I would never have photographed the entire collection, and without Karen I wouldn’t have anywhere near the insight as to what life as a patient at Willard would have been like. It is so fulfilling to be part of a team of such creative, smart, and great people, and I am so grateful to each for their help and support.
Willard Suitcases / George C / Charles F
I am attempting to make a push to upload as many new cases as I can over the next few months.
George C’s case is really blue! It was empty save for a label. You can see the other photos at the willardsuitcases.com site. I am uploading the cases chronologically, and this is the beginning of a run of empty cases. I ran the second kickstarted appeal specifically to document the entire collection, and even the empty ones are important to me. (By the way, thanks to Peggy Ross for convincing me how important it was to photograph every case. I wouldn’t and couldn’t have done it without her help and support.)
One case stands out in this sequence though, especially as it was anything but empty. Charles F’s possessions were amazing. It will take me days to go through it all, but I hope to have it up by the end of next week. Above is his certificate of naturalization. On the left you can see the list of clothing that came with him to Willard. More soon.
Thanks for following.
Willard Suitcases / John M / Lawrence G R / Final Case
Well, this seems to be it. This past Monday when we started our last day of shooting we expected to have just one remaining case with which to work. There were a few names on our master list that we didn’t photograph, but with a collection of over 400 suitcases, we figured that one or two were bound to be unaccounted for.
John M’s suitcase had just come back from the Exploratorium and we were eager to finish with his things. This woolen suit with two pair of trousers was unlike any other we had seen.
It was in pretty good shape, with the exception of this little hole. I don’t think it was a moth problem, but maybe he just caught it on a nail. Love the blue thread that runs through the weave.
We had shut off the strobes and were ready to pack up when we decided to look through the “institutional” items in the collection. (We are trying to decide whether or not to photograph these objects as well.) Peg spotted a box mixed in with the others that contained Lawrence R’s suitcase, so we fired everything up and got back to work.
Lawrence’s case was a really nice one. It contained quite a few letters, and some newspaper clippings. I like the headline here; “Cats Call Truce in War on Rats…” and there is a mention of goats underneath the photo. My friend Tania Werbizky is responsible for introducing me to Willard many years ago, and she loves both cats and goats. So this is a little thank you to her.
I also want to take a moment to give my heartfelt thanks the New York State Museum for allowing me access to the collection. But most of all I want to thank all of you who have been following along with me. I have learned so much from the comments you have posted, and from the very moving emails I have received from people who share with me their own struggles with mental health issues. And as I have said so many times before, I could not, and would not have been able to complete this work without the assistance and encouragement of Peggy Ross. She has added so much to all aspects of the project, and deserves the lion’s share of the credit.
Even though the shooting is finished, the work is far from over, and in some ways it is just the beginning. I will continuously be editing the photos and uploading them to the willardsuitcases.com site. I’ll continue to travel and speak about the suitcases and will be posting here where those talks are happening. There will undoubtedly be exhibits and I will be actively pursuing publishers. There has been so much call for a book, and am hopeful that a publisher will be found.
So, it is onward we go. Thank you all so much.
Willard Suitcases / Margaret D / Post #3
We have been learning quite a bit about Margaret’s life before she came to Willard. She worked at Herman M. Biggs Memorial Hospital in Ithaca as a nurse, and at some point had some sort of surgery. There were a large number of get well cards in the boxes we worked on yesterday, many of which had lovely personal notes on the inside. It was clear that she was very well liked by her friends and co-workers.
As I have mentioned before, Margaret came to Willard with almost everything she had accumulated up to that point in her life. Yesterday we came across her 1939 and 1940 1040A forms and quite a few photographs. Inside of a photo envelope labeled “Easter Greetings” was a picture of the car that I mentioned in this post.
In the same envelope was a photograph of the hospital in Ithaca where she once worked. / Peggy Ross was especially helpful yesterday, and I wanted to thank her again for all her hard work on the project. Her organizational skills are only outweighed by her cheerful spirit, which when shooting in a darkish and chilly storage facility is very much welcomed.
There has been quite a bit of attention to the project lately and with many new folks coming to this site, I wanted to remind everyone that I am continually uploading earlier shoots to the willardsuitcases.com site. Check it out if you haven’t been there lately, and thanks for following.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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