The Lives They Left Behind:Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic
When Charlotte Fischman, Chairperson of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), New York Chapter, approached John Ganly, Assistant Director for Collections at the Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL), with a request to consider bringing the exhibit The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic to SIBL, the response was an immediate yes.
The exhibit The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases From A State Hospital Attic, focuses on the over 600 suitcases discovered in the attic of the Willard Psychiatric Clinic near Albany after it had closed in 1995. In the suitcases were the belongings of patients housed at Willard over the past century. Personal items such as, a shaving kit, a sewing box and photographs taken in a coin vending photo machine were among the reminders of lives lost within the institution. Patient histories documented in the exhibit included that of a WW ll veteran, an Eastern European immigrant and a young woman accused of irrational thinking. Each patient’s story documented years of institutionalization that often ended in death and an unmarked grave. Dr. Peter Stastny and Darby Penney spent 10 years researching the suitcases and the exhibit and an accompanying monograph recount the story.
The response to the exhibit at SIBL was amazing. More than 30,000 persons visited the exhibit between December 4 and February 6. Visitors would often stop SIBL staff members to offer thanks and to share personal stories related to family experiences with institutionalization. One particularly poignant story came from a woman who discovered that her grandfather had died at Willard and was buried in a grave marked only with his patient number. The woman found the grave and erected a stone in his memory. Several public programs were offered in conjunction with the exhibit, each with a large turnout resulting in standing-room only. A final program focused on African American attitudes to mental health presented by Vanessa Jackson drew over 200 attendees.
The on-line version of the exhibit can be viewed at suitcaseexhibit.org
John Ganly, Science Industry & Business Library- The NYPL, New York, NY
