history

so i think i've discovered that part of what i love about history is the ability to go into someone else's life from the past and find the things that they left behind that haven't been found yet.

freshman spring, i got the chance to write a paper through special collections and go through letters written by mary low and louise coburn (the first women to attend colby) and explore what happened with co-education at colby college when it was just starting out. there are so many private things that people leave behind when they die that i want to look through.

i thoroughly believe that everyone has an interesting life story and leave something behind to find. maybe it's just my love of snooping, but who wants to be forgotten after they die? if i can preserve someone's life story after the pass, i consider that a success.

i think that's what i like so much about this project. photographer jon crispin has been able to go through these suitcases left in an old asylum and see what people who died there brought with them when they first arrived. each suitcase tells a story of who these people were, what interested them, and most importantly, what their life consisted of before entering an asylum.

photo credit: jon crispin

i think these are insanely cool.