A life in a suitcase

My daughter sent me a link to a story in Collector’s Weekly, about the personal belongings of insane asylum patients from 1910 to the 1960’s. Hundreds of suitcases were found locked away in an attic at the Willard Asylum for the Chronic Insane. The photographs of their meager belongings and what they tell us about their owners are fascinating. It reminds me of a poetry class where we had to bring in objects that represented us, to turn the real into symbols. Here is the process in reverse. We can only guess at who these (unidentified) people were, by what they brought with them as they entered the asylum, often never to leave again. It makes you think.