MetaFilter posts tagged with Collection

Object Lessons

Miko — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:41:06 -0800

What Should Museums Throw Out? At a time when controversial moves by major art museums are making the public more aware than ever of how museums collect or discard objects, the University College of London's museum invites visitors to play curator in the exhibit Disposal, viewing some white-elephant objects and determining their fate. The museum also just wrapped up another innovative exhibit on objects and point of vew, Object Retrieval, in which one object was explored and responded to by a rolling team of contributors from varying displines, 24 hours a day, for one week.

Amass Blog

OmieWise — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:31:26 -0800

AMASSBLOG my name is james phillips williams. most everyone calls me jp. i have been a designer in new york for 20 years. i started this blog at the urging of my friends and fellow designers who were familiar with my manic collecting. my collections are varied but generally have to do with typography or design.

Ephemera Assemblyman - a weblog

Ufez Jones — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:06:05 -0800

Ephemera Assemblyman a weblog. Personal favorites: Film Poster Paintings from Ghana :: Magician Souvenir Programs :: Abraham Lincoln Political Cartoons :: (The Art of) Spanish Rolling Papers :: Tickets from Political Conventions. Much more to be explored.

Coffee by Week Collection

lipsum — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:44:16 -0800

Now there's a 1000$ worth cups of coffee. Beautifully done by the very talented Mike Harding.

enjoying Wikipedia

nickyskye — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:22:45 -0800

Best of Wikipedia: A twice-daily updated collection of some of the best reading on Wikipedia. Created and maintained by avinash.vora.

Today's yards just aren't as exciting.

filthy light thief — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:10:22 -0800

The Merkel brothers are the grandsons of steam car makers and sons of an African art collector, and each have carried forward the love of collecting and an interest in cars from the previous generations. Henry Merkel is a recognized White expert, who continues to share knowledge of his family's productions and his knowledge of White steam cars has been published. Ben Merkel focused on collecting Checkered Cabs, and has has a love for peaceful rural junkyards. The youngest grandson of Walter White is Tom Merkel, and his love for collecting old cars outstrips his brothers by miles (print view). Somewhere in the Cuyama Valley, just outside of Los Padres National Forest land is his "car garden," which is also where the snowman that once adorned Santa Claus Lane now resides. His other love is 91+ year old cabin, which he indicates is "Santa Barbara's oldest cabin!" and a "Folk Art Magic Museum!" on the signs around the property, but which the Forest Service wants to tear down. Family history: Thomas Howard White founded White Sewing Machine Company, and later the White Motor Company, which began producing steam cars after finding the Locomobile unreliable. Thomas' youngest son was Walter White, who became vice president of the White Company when it split from its parent the White Sewing Machine Company in 1906, and then president of the White Motor Company in 1921. Walter's daugter, Katherine White, was renowned for her African art collection, which was donated to the Seattle Art Museum.

Wiring the Castle

Miko — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:09:16 -0800

Circuits are flipping on in the nation's attic. A couple of weeks ago, 31 "digerati" -- like Clay Shirky, Chris Anderson, and George Oates -- dropped in to the Smithsonian Institution for the invitation-only conference "Smithsonian 2.0: A Gathering to Re-imagine the Smithsonian in the Digital Age". Dan Cohen of the Center for History and New Media provides a great summary (and continues to pose provocative questions) on his own blog. Those whose invitations were somehow lost in the mail can play fly-on-the-wall by watching the keynotes, paging through the Flickr pool of envymaking glimpses of their behind-the-scenes lab and collections tours, reading the blog (where Bruce Wyman of the Denver Art Museum lays out a succinct road map for museums using social media), and poking around in the SI's website gallery. Want to cheer on the USA's favorite 163-year-old "Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge" without taking the trip to DC? Thanks to their recent efforts, you can now follow the SI on Twitter, listen to its podcasts, watch its YouTube channel, visit the Latino Virtual Museum in Second Life, or use the FaceBook gifts page to send your best friends their very own pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers, Hope diamond, Negro Leagues baseball, or coelocanth.

Matchboxes from the Subcontinent.

gman — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:29:40 -0800

"Collected during my time working from Bangalore, these matchboxes are the tangible memories of my various travels and experiences through India." via (with interview)

A Genuine Fake Poniatowski Gem?

tellurian — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:19:10 -0800

The Neoclassical Gem Collection of Prince Poniatowski - Prince Stanislas Poniatowski was the vastly wealthy nephew of the last King of Poland. Living in Rome, he built up a stunning collection of gems depicting scenes like Hercules Bagging the Pygmies in the Skin of the Nemean Lion. The collection was sold by Christie's at auction in 1839 and that's when the questions started… [pdf]

The Archive, Still Unsold

grabbingsand — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:25:19 -0800

The Archive. A short film by Sean Dunn and Ed David. "The world is dead out there. They have their ears closed. They don't understand what's going on at this moment. It's gonna take them 10, 15, 20 years to wake up and realize what they missed." Nobody has more records than Paul Mawhinney. He's ready to sell the whole thing for 6 cents on the dollar of their worth. 3 million records for $1 each. And nobody is buying. (Previously on Mefi.) And if your heart doesn't start cracking around the 6 minute mark, then heaven help you. (Found via OkayPlayer via NahRight.)

Libraries: delicious!

prefpara — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:41:38 -0800

Libraries are neat. The New York Public Library has uploaded a collection of menus dating from 1851 to 1956 thanks largely to the efforts of collector Miss Frank E. Buttolph, a "mysterious and passionate figure whose mission in life was to collect menus" and whose unique collection aroused the interest of the NYT of her day (1, 2).

The Moist Towelette Museum

RubberHen — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:59:06 -0800

So lemony and wonderful. Of course I searched the Metafilter Archives. I wanted to be sure I was not reposting a link. But I did find one reference to moist towelettes from machaus

"Many individuals have asked me in past months, Why moist towelette collecting? Why not stamp collecting, or numismatics? To be different, perhaps? " posted by machaus (12 comments total) back in 2001.

Well -- Machaus -- now you know where you can leave your collection when preparing your will.

Some Guy's 78 Collection

carsonb — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:16:31 -0800

The following is a list of over 3600 titles recorded from my collection of 78 rpm records....Right now, there are over 2,450 titles on this page linked to mp3's....I have about 2500 more records to record, so I'll be adding more titles as time permits over the next hundred years or so....I loaded a searchable ACCESS database for this list HERE. [.mdb] I don't know if it will work for everyone. Good luck! I've picked up some non-english collections of 78 rpm records and have loaded mp3's of the songs. Since I cannot read these languages, I also loaded pictures of the record labels so you can see what they say. Click the links below to see and hear them. ARABIC JAPANESE GREEK

The Historic American Sheet Music archive

Upton O'Good — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:59:07 -0800

The Historic American Sheet Music archive at the Duke University Library has over 3000 pieces published in the United States available online, from the 1850s up to 1920. Composers represented include well-known names such as Scott Joplin, Irving Berlin, and John Philip Sousa. All the music is now in the public domain, and may be printed and performed freely. [Note: Language or stereotypes may occasionally be NSFW.]

This deal here is new

dersins — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:55:46 -0800

"New Deal Programs: Selected Library of Congress Resources was created to serve as a starting point for research using Library of Congress collections of New Deal program materials." Includes links to numerous collections of digitized materials, including photos, posters, music, manuscripts and more. Some of these individual sites have been linked here before, but the "New Deal Programs" portal in the first link is the first time the individual collections have been...uh... collected by the LOC.

Historical Photographs of China

peacay — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:23:32 -0800

The Sidney D Gamble Photograph Collection at Duke University consists of about 5,000 newly digitised pictures, taken predominantly in China between 1917 and 1932. Browse by subject, category or location tags. Photos taken in 1908 are to be added in the future. [via]

"A small statement that says a lot of things to different people."

amyms — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:09:29 -0800

I Love My Life The Way It Is. A collection-in-progress of unscratched scratch-off lottery tickets, the project is the brainchild of Ali Alvarez, who hopes to collect at least 8000 tickets, enough to fill a 12x12 room from floor to ceiling. Alvarez is soliciting donations of unscratched tickets from volunteers around the world, and has posted pictures of some of the ones received so far. The idea of an unscratched lottery ticket makes some people "a little crazy," but Alvarez hopes the collection will cause people to explore the ideas of "getting your hopes high, dreaming, escaping, and then usually being let down." Via.

Current insulator fun

tellurian — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:52:04 -0800

From a .com to a .info netting the price of a Westinghouse (R-Skirt) "Telluride" Type B. SB (part of the Greatest Insulator Find in the History of the Hobby). via Zoltan Drinoczi. [previously]

Anybody got a match?

dersins — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:31:54 -0800

From Aircraft to Zodiac, from Tricks to Trucks, the Zippo Gallery has something for everyone. (Well, everyone who likes Zippos, anyway.)

"World's Greatest Music Collection" being auctioned

anathema — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:30:12 -0800

Do you love music? Do you have at least 3 million dollars? If you answered "yes" to these questions then you may be interested in bidding on "The World's Greatest Music Collection." (single link to ebay auction)

something for everyone

nickyskye — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:33:20 -0800

Club Little Gun, a bunch of tiny guns built into things from rings to crosses. Eat your heart out, Indiana Jones, the whip pistol. via More than 15, 000 pictures with descriptions on the main site of a Belgian collector, in both French and English.

East German (DDR) RC cars

riffola — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:00:45 -0800

DDR-Modell Autos.info meticulously catalogs radio controlled and flywheel powered cars made by East German (DDR) toy makers such as Presu, Elmes, MSW, Anker, Piko, Gevo, Plasticart and Sommermeyer.

Most people have never heard of Metafilter, will not see this link, and those who do will forget it soon

klangklangston — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:02:28 -0800

The Ephemera Society was glancingly mentioned prior, but deserves a better mention. It includes:
—An exhibit, an article, and links to Michael Ragsdale's 9/11 ephemera.
—A history of Coca-cola print ephemera.
—An article by Will Shortz on the ephemeral history of the crossword.
—Articles from the Louisiana Library Association's journal issue on ephemera, including Principles for Organizing an Ephemera Collection and an Overview of Political Ephemera.

Pencil me in

dersins — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:59:27 -0800

Man, this guy really likes pencils.

Pencil pushers - Pencil collectors

spock — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:08:58 -0800

The Art of Sharpening the Pencil (You've GOT to check out the bizarre pencil sharpener at the bottom of the page. "You'll poke your eye out!"). While pencil collectors and attractive web design normally go together like oil and water, brandnamepencils.com is worth a look. Don't miss the audio on Henry David Thoreau's contributions to American pencil-making (part of the excellent "Engines of our Ingenuity" radio series – with every episode's audio available online).