Willard Asylum Suitcases

This project is so amazing and fascinating. Here's a write up:

"In 1995, the New York State Museum was moving items out of the Willard Psychiatric Center in Willard, NY which was being closed by the State Office of Mental Health.  It would eventually become a state-run drug rehabilitation center.  Craig Williams and his staff became aware of an attic full of suitcases in the pathology lab building.  The cases were put into storage when their owners were admitted to Willard sometime between 1910 and the 1960s. And since the facility was set up to help people with chronic mental illness, these folks never left.  An exhibit of a small selection of the cases was produced by the Museum and was on display in Albany in 2003.  It was very moving to read the stories of these people, and to see objects from their lives before they became residents of Willard." Jon Crispin. {View the accompanying video!}

Jon Crispin painstakingly unwraps each carefully bound suitcase and photographs the contents, documenting the process as he goes. Here are a few of the images taken by Jon Crispin for the series. See more images here and here.

(Link via Foxtail + Fern)