Forgotten letters, hairbrushes, and an old alarm clock are all carefully preserved in the lost suitcases of the mentally insane. Once belonging to patients who entered the Willard Asylum for the Insane that operated from 1910 to the 1960s, these suitcases were discovered in 1995 by New York State Museum staff and are now a profound subject of interest for photographer Jon Crispin. Thought to have belonged to patients that never left the asylum, Crispin photographs and archives their suitcases in an attempt to piecemeal the story of their lives before entering the asylum.

What is most tragic about the suitcases is the fact that these everyday seemingly trivial items are all that is left to represent real people. Can capturing these items with photography and bringing attention to the minutia of their mundane possessions somehow tell the story of their lost lives? Crispin leaves us to wonder what will the things we leave behind say about us…?

via Colossal