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Original poster

Things that are utterly bloody fascinating

784 replies

ElizabethBest · 06/03/2023 14:24

Let's hear it please - I love a good wikipedia rabbit hole. I'll start - The Willard Suitcases. Over 400 suitcases of possessions were found in an attic at the Willard Insane Asylum belong to patients who had died whilst inpatients so never left. The New York State Museum started a project to document the cases and their contents, and you can learn all about it and see the cases on their website.

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Original poster
ElizabethBest · 06/03/2023 16:31

@notprincehamlet god, the stupidity actually hurts. "what did the Romans ever do for us?" part 2.

OP posts:
Original poster
ElizabethBest · 06/03/2023 16:30

@FriedEggChocolate that's so interesting! I knew about the Foundling Hospital's links with Handel, and about the pebble lottery, but I'd never heard about this!

OP posts:
neitherofthem · 06/03/2023 16:02

That is fascinating @ElizabethBest but also really poignant and rather sad at the same time. Those poor people, it makes you wonder why they were there, incarcerated all that time, and what happened with their families.

FriedEggChocolate · 06/03/2023 15:59

Foundling Hospital in London, where mothers left half a swatch of fabric with their baby and kept the other half so they could show it to reclaim their baby. Most didn't so there are pages and pages of these coloured fabric swatches. This is an old link but it gives you an idea.

Trigger warning: some of the linked image reference babies and young children who died at the hospital.

Paturday · 06/03/2023 15:45

Wow that’s amazing op!

EmmaEmerald · 06/03/2023 15:43

Creatures from folklore

notprincehamlet · 06/03/2023 15:41

The EU's effect on Blackpool's beaches – before and after pictures
www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/13/the-eus-effect-on-blackpools-beaches-before-and-after-pictures

louise5754 · 06/03/2023 15:23

I love looking at videos / photos of abandoned homes. I especially like the really old ones or weirdly the 90s where they look lived in. It bakes you wonder why they just left home and never returned.

I'm going to click that link.
Interesting post.

Just2MoreSeasons · 06/03/2023 15:16

Op - that is truly fascinating! I live social history. I would love to see those suitcases and their contents in an exhibition. It's really very humbling when you see what a person is remembered by- their cleaning brushes, a letter, some pretty shoes. Makes me look round my own home wondering what would be in my suitcase? And what would some future person make of its contents.
I don't have anything else to share but Thankyou so much for sharing this.

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