The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic - A Travelling Exhibit

Thanks to the generous support of the van Ameringen Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Community Consortium, with its partner The Exhibition Alliance, Inc., has produced a traveling exhibit based on Peter Stastny’s and Darby Penney’s research on the lives of individuals committed to Willard State Hospital in rural New York State from the late 19th-mid-20th centuries. Drawing on the contents of their abandoned suitcases discovered in an attic, the research used artifacts, documents, diaries, artwork and photographs found in the suitcases, as well as material from patient records and other archival sources. The display presented the richness and complexity of the lives of 12 individual patients within the historical context of psychiatric institutionalization in the first half of the 20th century, a time when commitment to a state institution was essentially for life.

The traveling consists of free-standing kiosks with photographs of the suitcase owners and their possessions, biographical material about the individuals, and historical information on the hospital during the period. The exhibit, which debuted at the headquarters of the federal Mental Health and Substance Abuse Administration in September 2006, is available for rental to hosting organizations such as public libraries, state and local government agencies, peer-run organizations, historical societies, local and regional museums, human service agencies, schools, colleges, and community centers. It’s our goal to bring this traveling exhibit to as broad a spectrum of the public as possible. The curators will be available to participate in educational programming to accompany the exhibit.

The Exhibition Alliance, Inc., a non-profit museum services organization, is handling bookings for the exhibit. An information packet is available at http://www.exhibitionalliance.org/documents/53.pdf. For more information on hosting the exhibit, contact the Exhibition Alliance at (315) 824-2510 or info@exhibitionalliance.org.


Current Schedule:

March 2- May 28, 2007: Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York

Summer 2007 (tentative): St. Louis, MO.

Sept/Oct 2007 (tentative) Davenport, Iowa