Mad Memories- Photographing Suitcases from New York State Mental Asylum

In 1995, 400 suitcases were recovered from the attic of the Willard State Asylum in Upstate New York. Many patients died at the asylum and were buried in graves marked only by numbers. For many, these suitcases are the only traces left of these sad, lost, and lonely lives.

{click here to watch a creepy video infiltrating the now abandoned Willard State Asylum}

Dating between 1910 and 1960, photographer Jon Crispin has begun the chilling endeavour of cataloguing each suitcase and the contents therein. These people were deemed unfit for society, but Crispin’s photographs reveal a tragic humanity to the individuals whose memory remain in the mysterious objects and photos in these many bags and luggages.

Being the lovers of mystery we are, we couldn’t help but share some of these photos with you here, and the strange enigma they leave for us to ponder.