Abandoned Suitcases Reveal Private Lives of Insane Asylum Patients

[Locut0s]

"If you were committed to a psychiatric institution, unsure if you’d ever return to the life you knew before, what would you take with you? That sobering question hovers like an apparition over each of the Willard Asylum suitcases. From the 1910s through the 1960s, many patients at the Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane left suitcases behind when they passed away, with nobody to claim them. Upon the center’s closure in 1995, employees found hundreds of these time capsules stored in a locked attic. Working with the New York State Museum, former Willard staffers were able to preserve the hidden cache of luggage as part of the museum’s permanent collection."

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http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/abandoned-suitcases-reveal-private-lives-of-insane-asylum-patients/

[panader0]

1. Interesting stuff.

[Historic NY]

2. Scraps of peoples lives...

growing up we used to visit a state facility where an aunt's brother was. These big places (some warehouses) were the only places for some, that were comfortable with a margin of regimented life.

[IrishAyes]

3. You really dig up interesting bones!