AUBURN - Traveling suitcases unlock compelling histories of lives lost, challenging society's views of mental health and human rights.
Chet Susslin / The Citizen
The personal effects of Mr. Frank, No. 27967, are arranged for display in “The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic”
The personal effects of Mr. Frank, No. 27967, are arranged for display in “The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic”
“The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic,” a patient-centered view of the history of mental health, will be on display at the Cayuga Museum of History and Art from Feb. 23 through April 20.
Options for Independence, the Peer Networking Group of CNY, and the museum bring this traveling exhibit of psychiatric patients' artifacts here. Patients who lived at the Willard Psychiatric Center in Romulus, NY, from 1869 to 1995 left their suitcases behind. The patients brought these trunks with them when they arrived, but they weren't allowed to keep them in their rooms. The contents, therefore, reflect their lives prior to being hospitalized.
The exhibition is based on about 400 suitcases that staff members found when the psychiatric center closed in 1995. Nearly half of the 54,000 patients admitted died there.
Former Willard employee Beverly Courtwright led a New York State Museum curator up to an attic where Courtwright recalled something stashed under the roof of the Sheltered Workshop Building. They pried open the attic door and discovered rows of wooden racks stuffed with suitcases of all shapes and sizes - men's on the left, women's on the right, alphabetized, labeled, and covered with layers of bird droppings. The curator collected them all to house them in the museum.
Nine of the 12 suitcases usually on display will be shown here. The rich variety of objects found inside the suitcases provide mesmerizing histories of their owners.
Ethel, a seamstress who spent 43 years in Willard, worked part time in the laundry, making quilts and baby booties in her spare time. Herman, whose seizures put him in Willard, became depressed and uncommunicative during his 35 years there before he died in 1965. Dymytro, a Nazi slave camp survivor from the Ukraine, endured 20 electroconvulsive therapy sessions, yet finished one painting every day for years. Margaret, a Scottish immigrant who served as a nurse in World War I, was committed in 1941 after contracting tuberculosis with subsequent emotional problems. She received no psychotherapy, only Thorazine. Theresa, aka Dominican Sister Marie Ursuline, was admitted after having lost her Mother Superior and refusing to pledge obedience to someone new.
She was plagued by spiritual concerns for which she could find no relief. Officials did not believe she was ever a member of a religious order. Rodriguo, a Filipino from an upper-class family, worked as a domestic although he was educated. He became depressed and was institutionalized, but officials later concuded that it had been a mistake as he behaved normally and even wrote poetry.
Darby Penney, former director of recipient affairs at the New York State Office of Mental Health, and Dr. Peter Stastny, psychiatrist and documentary film maker, worked together for about 10 years to piece together what happened to 25 patients from their belongings, medical records, and interviews.
Penney said she became interested in the artifacts almost by accident. Her job was to present the perspective of the people who used mental health services, and the discovery was casually mentioned by the New York State Museum's curator.
“At that point our interest was in getting the stories of people out there in the context of what the mental health system was like at the time,” Penney said. The museum, traveling exhibit, Web site, and the book were the result of lots of research and effort.
Using hospital records, patients' medical records, and correspondence, they searched through snapshots, located patients' relatives and former hospital employees. They also read transcriptions of intake interviews to hear each patient's “voice.”
Photographer Lisa Rinzler captured images of the gravesites and former homes of the patients in addition to their artifacts.
Penney's goal is to change priorities that people have. “They can't think about the mental patient as 'the other,' The exhibit makes people less afraid of mental patients and more aware of their ability to make a positive contribution.”
Curators hope the stories provide a human dimension to those who have been hidden and forgotten. This handful of lives will cause visitors to reflect upon the conditions of the other 50,000 or so patients who lived at Willard from 1869 until its closing.
These lives are connected by the seemingly accidental way they ended up at Willard and other mental institutions.
“For many of these people it was saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in front of the wrong person,” Penney said. An employer, a relative, a policeman, or even a neighbor might have been the one to “diagnose” someone who ended up there as crazy.
During Willard's prime, there were few, if any, psychiatrists. For many years Willard was designated as the state institution for incurable patients, the forgotten of the forgotten, many of whom lived out their lives there.
Planned events include an opening reception on Saturday, Feb. 23, a public forum about mental health treatment, and a lecture and book signing by Darby Penney at the Schweinfurth Museum at 2 p.m. on April 13.
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net
If you go
What: “The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic”
When: Opens noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23
Where: Cayuga Museum of History and Art, 203 Genesee St., Auburn
How much: Free
Info: Call 253-8051
Options for Independence, the Peer Networking Group of CNY, and the museum bring this traveling exhibit of psychiatric patients' artifacts here. Patients who lived at the Willard Psychiatric Center in Romulus, NY, from 1869 to 1995 left their suitcases behind. The patients brought these trunks with them when they arrived, but they weren't allowed to keep them in their rooms. The contents, therefore, reflect their lives prior to being hospitalized.
The exhibition is based on about 400 suitcases that staff members found when the psychiatric center closed in 1995. Nearly half of the 54,000 patients admitted died there.
Former Willard employee Beverly Courtwright led a New York State Museum curator up to an attic where Courtwright recalled something stashed under the roof of the Sheltered Workshop Building. They pried open the attic door and discovered rows of wooden racks stuffed with suitcases of all shapes and sizes - men's on the left, women's on the right, alphabetized, labeled, and covered with layers of bird droppings. The curator collected them all to house them in the museum.
Nine of the 12 suitcases usually on display will be shown here. The rich variety of objects found inside the suitcases provide mesmerizing histories of their owners.
Ethel, a seamstress who spent 43 years in Willard, worked part time in the laundry, making quilts and baby booties in her spare time. Herman, whose seizures put him in Willard, became depressed and uncommunicative during his 35 years there before he died in 1965. Dymytro, a Nazi slave camp survivor from the Ukraine, endured 20 electroconvulsive therapy sessions, yet finished one painting every day for years. Margaret, a Scottish immigrant who served as a nurse in World War I, was committed in 1941 after contracting tuberculosis with subsequent emotional problems. She received no psychotherapy, only Thorazine. Theresa, aka Dominican Sister Marie Ursuline, was admitted after having lost her Mother Superior and refusing to pledge obedience to someone new.
She was plagued by spiritual concerns for which she could find no relief. Officials did not believe she was ever a member of a religious order. Rodriguo, a Filipino from an upper-class family, worked as a domestic although he was educated. He became depressed and was institutionalized, but officials later concuded that it had been a mistake as he behaved normally and even wrote poetry.
Darby Penney, former director of recipient affairs at the New York State Office of Mental Health, and Dr. Peter Stastny, psychiatrist and documentary film maker, worked together for about 10 years to piece together what happened to 25 patients from their belongings, medical records, and interviews.
Penney said she became interested in the artifacts almost by accident. Her job was to present the perspective of the people who used mental health services, and the discovery was casually mentioned by the New York State Museum's curator.
“At that point our interest was in getting the stories of people out there in the context of what the mental health system was like at the time,” Penney said. The museum, traveling exhibit, Web site, and the book were the result of lots of research and effort.
Using hospital records, patients' medical records, and correspondence, they searched through snapshots, located patients' relatives and former hospital employees. They also read transcriptions of intake interviews to hear each patient's “voice.”
Photographer Lisa Rinzler captured images of the gravesites and former homes of the patients in addition to their artifacts.
Penney's goal is to change priorities that people have. “They can't think about the mental patient as 'the other,' The exhibit makes people less afraid of mental patients and more aware of their ability to make a positive contribution.”
Curators hope the stories provide a human dimension to those who have been hidden and forgotten. This handful of lives will cause visitors to reflect upon the conditions of the other 50,000 or so patients who lived at Willard from 1869 until its closing.
These lives are connected by the seemingly accidental way they ended up at Willard and other mental institutions.
“For many of these people it was saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in front of the wrong person,” Penney said. An employer, a relative, a policeman, or even a neighbor might have been the one to “diagnose” someone who ended up there as crazy.
During Willard's prime, there were few, if any, psychiatrists. For many years Willard was designated as the state institution for incurable patients, the forgotten of the forgotten, many of whom lived out their lives there.
Planned events include an opening reception on Saturday, Feb. 23, a public forum about mental health treatment, and a lecture and book signing by Darby Penney at the Schweinfurth Museum at 2 p.m. on April 13.
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net
If you go
What: “The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic”
When: Opens noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23
Where: Cayuga Museum of History and Art, 203 Genesee St., Auburn
How much: Free
Info: Call 253-8051
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