Here’s a fas­cin­at­ing web­site sent to me by my friend Saty about a The Wil­lard Suit­case Exhibit. The back-story:

When Wil­lard Psy­chi­at­ric Cen­ter in New York’s Fin­ger Lakes closed in 1995, work­ers dis­covered hun­dreds of suit­cases in the attic of an aban­doned build­ing.  Many of them appeared untouched since their own­ers packed them dec­ades earlier before enter­ing the institution.The suit­cases and their con­tents bear wit­ness to the rich, com­plex lives their own­ers lived prior to being com­mit­ted to Willard.

From http://www.suitcaseexhibit.org

And what a wit­ness it is. This is a rich and com­plex story, with a large web­site, and I had to revisit it a few times. It was worth the time inves­ted. The pho­to­graphs are fant­astic, full of life and mys­tery. Plus, the web­site includes some eight­een oral histories.

The  Wil­lard men­tal health insti­tu­tion has an import­ant place in the his­tory of forced treat­ment for men­tal health issues. This exhib­i­tion does a very good job at illu­min­at­ing that his­tory and human­iz­ing its char­ac­ters. It is a rare and beau­ti­ful example of his­tory that is worthy of being called art.