I’ve always thought collections were both highly interesting and weird at the same time. Look at a museum, for example. Museums collect items from our past and they’re highly, at least to me, entertaining and educational. But ultimately, they’re just items on display much like decorations in a house, only these particular items have a backstory, also like some of the decorative items in your house.
For instance, one of my most treasured items is a Royal No. 10 typewriter (circa 1930s) with novelty glass windows on the sides so you can see the internal workings. It sits on my office desk as decoration, yet it has some value beyond sentiment and offers a glimpse into more than just the moving arms that the keys operate but the past. And it also came as a gift to me from someone’s collection of 20th century communication devises (one of the more interesting collections I’ve personally seen, given my interests).
My sister has been collecting glass figurines since she was a girl. My sister-in-law collects earth from her travels. My uncle is a coin collector. And my oldest brother will basically collect anything for a short time then set it all in a shadowbox and call it a day (though he does also have a rather steadily stocked comic book collection).
But what makes a collection?
I once watched an interview with Keanu Reeves, who’s a known motorcycle enthusiast and collector, where he pondered the same thing. How many of one thing or like object makes a collection? One? Two? Multiple? Several? Many? 100? What number makes a collection? And what’s the dividing line between collection and items of use?
Cereal companies and fast-food restaurants will tout something as a collectible item, but in what kind of collection?
And we all have multiple sets of clothes, but no one ever tells someone they’re closet stores his or her clothes collection. I’m a woodworker and I have lots of tools. Is it a tool collection or just tools of a trade? In my office I have hundreds of books, but I’ve never viewed it as a book collection but a home library. Are the apps on my phone a collection?
On the other hand, my father has been making wood toys since I was a child, a hobby he brought to the Woodchucks that transformed into them making and donating wood toys each holiday season to the food pantry. Every year, he’s given me a wood toy he or the club has made. So I would tell anyone I have a wood toy collection. But speaking of toys, I also have two of those popular Funko Pop figurines in my office, but I don’t consider those a collection…because they’re only two and I have no want to buy more. And what about things you can’t display…like grievances? I have several of those, and depending on how things are going at the time in my life, I’m always looking for more. Okay, that’s a joke (sort of!), but you get my point.
What makes a collection?
Seriously, I really want to know. If you have an opinion or would like to share your collection, please let me know at chris@whitesilomedia.com
In the meantime, please enjoy this piece in our ongoing collection of My Huntley News and My Sun Day News newspapers because we’ve published hundreds of them now so that can be a collection, right?!
