HBO - Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson (2015)

Jane Anderson has a story about her great-aunt, Edith Lake Wilkinson. One day in the mid-1960s, Jane’s mother suggested to her sister-in-law that they go up into the attic, where they discovered hundreds of Edith’s paintings packed into trunks. Jane’s mother brought the paintings back to California, and Jane grew up surrounded by Edith’s work. Back in 1924, Edith had been committed to an asylum at the age of 57, and Jane has spent much of her adult life trying to figure out how she got there. Piecing together fragments of information, Jane knows that Edith left her family home in 1888 to study art in New York. She met a woman named Fannie while studying at Teacher’s College, and they moved into an apartment together. Edith and Fannie went abroad a number of times, and Edith spent
summers at the art colony in Provincetown, MA. But everything changed when Edith was signed in to the Sheppard Pratt Hospital in Baltimore by her lawyer, who it turns out had been siphoning off her inheritance. Edith died in 1957.

Jane moved to New York when she was 20, around the same age Edith had. Looking at Edith’s old sketchbooks, Jane was astonished to see that she had drawn sketches of some of the same kinds of scenes Edith had 60 years earlier; in fact, it seemed to Jane that they were leading parallel lives. Jane tried to find traces of Edith’s paintings in Provincetown, but no one recognized her work. Jane moved on, but now, in her late 50s – the same age as when Edith was committed – Jane decides to renew her quest. One day Jane’s cousin calls to say she’s found an old Joan of Arc book inscribed from Fannie to Edith: a revelation that holds special significance because one of the first gifts Jane’s partner Tess gave her was about Joan of Arc – and it was the same book! Awed by this coincidence, Jane and Tess wonder if Edith’s spirit might be guiding them.

In order to give Edith exposure, Jane built her a website. Stephen Briscoe, director of the Larkin Gallery in Provincetown, came across the site and emailed Jane about doing a show of Edith’s work. Jane is ecstatic that Edith will return to Provincetown, but the question remains why she ever left. Searching for clues, Jane decides to go to Sheppard Pratt Hospital. There’s no patient record, but current administrators show Jane and Tess Edith’s registration card, which indicates her diagnosis was “paranoid state.” Edith was at Sheppard Pratt for 10 years before being transferred to Huntington State Hospital in West Virginia, which had a notorious reputation for poor care.

Still looking for answers, Jane and Tess travel to Wheeling, West Virginia, where Jane’s grandparents lived, to search for paintings that might have been Edith’s; they also visit the cemetery where Edith was buried. Then comes the task of gathering Edith’s art for a gallery show, visiting family members who have her works, and promising to take special care of the pieces. In Provincetown, Jane speaks with local historians, artists and gallery owners about the town’s history as an artists’ mecca – one that was open and accepting of gays and lesbians, even at the turn of the 20th century. Jane also discovers that Edith was one of the first to use “white line block printing,” a technique previously attributed to another artist, and that her works sold at shows in New York, Chicago, and other major cities. Edith’s gallery show – staged in the same building she painted a century before – arrives. It’s a resounding success, but Jane is still baffled as to how Edith ended up in an asylum at the height of her artistic powers. She decides to consult a psychic medium, Lisa Williams, who describes details about Edith and Fannie that leave Jane and Tess amazed. As a result of Jane and Tess’s efforts, two of Edith’s works are on currently hanging at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum – finally placed alongside those of her Provincetown peers.

Credits: Directed by Michelle Boyaner; written by Jane Anderson and Michelle Boyaner; executive producers, Jane Anderson, Tess Ayers, Michelle Boyaner, Barbara Green; cinematographer/editor, Barbara Green; music by Danielle Ate The Sandwich.