Collection Thinking: Within and Without Libraries, Archives and Museums

365 Pages·2022·127.123 MB·English

by  Jason Camlot, Martha Langford, Linda M. Morra

Collection Thinking
Collection Thinking is a volume of essays that thinks across and beyond crit-
ical frameworks from library, archival, and museum studies to understand
the meaning of “collection” as an entity and as an act. It offers new models
for understanding how collections have been imagined and defined, assem-
bled, created, and used as cultural phenomena.
Featuring over 70 illustrations and 21 original chapters that explore cases
from a wide range of fields, including library and archival studies, literary
studies, art history, media studies, sound studies, folklore studies, game stud-
ies, and education, Collection Thinking builds on the important scholarly
works produced on the topic of the archive over the past two decades and
contributes to ongoing debates on the historical status of memory institu-
tions. The volume illustrates how the concept of “collection” bridges these
institutional and structural categories and generates discussions of cultural
activities involving artifactual arrangement, preservation, curation, and cir-
culation in both the private and the public spheres. Edited and introduced
collaboratively by three senior scholars with expertise in the fields of litera-
ture, art history, archives, and museums, Collection Thinking is designed to
stimulate interdisciplinary reflection and conversation.
This book will be of interest to scholars and practitioners interested in how
we organize materials for research across disciplines of the humanities and
social sciences. With case studies that range from collecting Barbie dolls to
medieval embroideries, and with contributions from practitioners on record
collecting, the creation of sub-culture archives, and collection as artistic
practice, this volume will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered about why
and how collections are made.
Jason Camlot is a Professor of English and Research Chair in Literature and
Sound Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
Martha Langford is the Research Chair and Director of the Gail and Stephen
A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, a Distinguished
University Research Professor in the Department of Art History in Concordia
University (Montreal), and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Linda M. Morra is a Full Professor in English at Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke,
Canada.

Collection Thinking
Within and Without Libraries, Archives
and Museums
Edited by Jason Camlot,
Martha Langford, and
Linda M. Morra
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Edited by Jason Camlot,
Martha Langford, Linda M. Morra; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Jason Camlot, Martha Langford, Linda M. Morra to be
identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors
for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-25254-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-25255-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-28230-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003282303
Typeset in Times New Roman
by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive)
Contents
List of Figures viii
List of Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xvii
Preface xix
SUSAN M. PEARCE
Introduction: Collection Thinking 1
JASON CAMLOT, MARTHA LANGFORD, AND LINDA M. MORRA
PART 1
Ontology 25
1 Ontology 27
JASON CAMLOT
2 Incautious Stewardship of Library Collections:
Creating Collections Where They Don’t Exist,
Losing Collections Where They Do 35
JOSHUA HUTCHINSON
3 Indexing Intimacies: The Affective Collections of
André Breton and Samuel M. Steward 50
PETER DUBÉ
4 Collecting Children in Coraline and Harry Potter 61
COLETTE SLAGLE
5 Edible Enigmas: Food Riddles and
Enigmatical Bills of Fare 75
NATHALIE COOKE, ANNA DYSERT, AND MERIKA RAMUNDO
vi Contents
6 A Variantology of Research Collections:
The Residual Media Depot 91
DARREN WERSHLER
7 Situationist Stuff: Collection as Explanatory Accumulation 119
JOHAN KUGELBERG (WITH JASON CAMLOT)
PART 2
Agency 127
8 Agency 129
LINDA M. MORRA
9 Audible Collections: What Remains of Voices on the Radio 137
KATHERINE MCLEOD
10 Collection as Biography: The Pierre and Annie
Cantin Collection 154
VALÉRIE BOUCHARD
11 “The Relics … What Are They?”: Locating
Florence Nightingale in Her Childhood Library 170
GEOFFREY ROBERT LITTLE
12 Creating, Collecting, and Curating: Mothers Pass
Down Barbie Traditions 181
EMILY R. AGUILÓ-PÉREZ
13 Collecting Copies: The Fabiola Project by Francis Alÿs 196
GEORGIA PHILLIPS-AMOS
14 Audio Aficionados: The School of Collecting
Very Old Sound Recordings 208
PATRICK FEASTER
Contents vii
PART 3
Community 215
15 Community 217
MARTHA LANGFORD
16 Made to Move: Convent Embroidery
Collections and Communities of Care 226
ANNA WAGER
17 Collect Them All (Again): Digital Collection as
Nostalgic Incentive in Fire Emblem Heroes 241
ALEX CUSTODIO
18 Off the Grid: Exploring the Human Networks in
Underground Art Making and Collection Building 257
HÉLÈNE BROUSSEAU AND JESSICA HÉBERT
19 Finding Fireweed: Magazine Metadata as
Archive of Feminist Movement 274
FELICITY TAYLER
20 The People and the Text: An Inclusive Collection 292
DEANNA REDER AND MARGERY FEE
21 Raging: Revisiting Raging Dyke Network 306
NICKY BIRD
Conclusion, or How to Use this Book Now
That You Have Read It 320
JASON CAMLOT, MARTHA LANGFORD, AND LINDA M. MORRA
Index 327
Figures
0.1 Ali Barillaro, Mordecai Richler Library, Concordia University,
Montreal, 2021. 14
5.1 “An Anigmatical Bill of Fare,” in Elenor Poole (additions
by Jo.h Cobb), Cookery Book (1733–1827). Manuscript. 79
5.2 In “Riddles and Other Puzzles,” schoolboy exercises in verse
and other poems, early–mid-nineteenth century. Manuscript. 80
5.3 From “An Invitation to an Entertainment with the Bill of Fare,”
from Pleasing variety for Miss Mary Arnold / [by] Mrs. Stapleton,
c. 178-?. Manuscript. 81
5.4 WorldCat database, Detailed record of Eliza Smithson,
Eliza Smithson, 21 February 1805 [Smithson Riddle Book]. 82
5.5 Entry for “riddles (documents),” “Art & Architecture
Thesaurus,” in Getty Vocabularies, Getty Research
Institute website. 83
6.1 Darren Wershler, Residual Media Depot, Retro Gaming
Cables SNES/SFC SCART cable with CSYNC, 2021. 101
6.2 Darren Wershler, Residual Media Depot, The Depot’s 1
CHIP-03 Super Famicom, after performing the installation
of Console5’s CSYNC Restore/Repair kit, 2021. 106
6.3 Darren Wershler, Residual Media Depot, The Depot’s
New-Style Super NES with Borti’s RGB Bypass Board,
Version 4.1a with S-Video, 2021. 107
6.4 Darren Wershler, Residual Media Depot, The Depot’s
New-Style Super NES with Voultar’s SNES 1CHIP/Mini
RGB Bypass Kit, Version .79, 2021. 108
6.5 Darren Wershler, Residual Media Depot, Mainboard
stamp on The Depot’s SNES-02, 2021. 109
6.6 Darren Wershler, Residual Media Depot, 1CHIP-02 with
SNES RGB Bypass Board Version 4.1a, installed in the
Depot’s 1CHIP-02 with missing CSYNC, 2021. 109
6.7 Darren Wershler, Residual Media Depot, A Depot
Super Famicom with a custom component video
mod, 2021. 111
Figures ix
7.1 Johan Kugelberg, Buddy Esquire storage space, c. 2010. 121
7.2 Michael Daley, Ira Cohen archive—first-pass sort,
Boo-Hooray, New York, 2009. 122
7.3 Michael Daley, Jonas Mekas, Johan Kugelberg, and
Larry Clark, Boo-Hooray, New York, 2013. 123
7.4 Johan Kugelberg, May 68: Street Posters from the Paris
Rebellion. Exhibition view, Hayward Project Space,
London, UK, 2008. 124
10.1 Selected objects. Musée de la civilisation, Annie Cantin
and Pierre Cantin donation. 156
10.2 Attributed to Louis Jobin, Sheep, 1900–1925. Annie
Cantin collection. 159
10.3 Photographer unknown, Étienne-Victor Cantin in his
jewelry shop, Quebec City, c. 1908. 163
13.1 Installation view of Francis Alÿs: Fabiola, 20 September 2007
to 6 April 2008, Dia at the Hispanic Society. 197
13.2 Installation view of Francis Alÿs: The Fabiola Project, 21
May 2016 to 28 October 2018, Byzantine Fresco Chapel,
The Menil Collection, Houston. 199
13.3 Installation view of Francis Alÿs: The Fabiola Project, 21
May 2016 to 28 October 2018, Byzantine Fresco Chapel,
The Menil Collection, Houston. 203
14.1 Reuben Haskins’ Trip ’Round the World in His Air Ship: the
childhood antique store find that introduced the author to the
“descriptive specialty.” 209
14.2 Looking through 78s at the legendary Toad Hall in Rockford,
Illinois—a place the author learned about through the
collectors’ grapevine, 2008. Photo: Ronda L. Sewald. 210
14.3 “Friend Guy, I’m making you a record”: a home-recorded
phonograph cylinder won on eBay, 1999. Photo: M. Shahinoor
Rahman. 211
14.4 78 record shelving in the author’s basement, Bloomington,
Indiana, USA, 2020. 213
14.5 Early home recordings and spoken letters: avid collectors of
these are few and far between, 2020. 214
16.1 Society of St. Margaret, vestments displaying notable
etching technique, late nineteenth century. 229
16.2 Society of St. Margaret, cope hood depicting the conversion
of Paul on the road to Damascus, late nineteenth century. 230
16.3 Society of St. Margaret, cope, silk on purple velvet,
1880–1900. 232
16.4 Society of St. Margaret, display cases, lone cope on
display in the Elizabeth Hoare Gallery, 2018. 237
17.1 Nintendo, Fire Emblem Heroes: Mini Acrylic Figure Collection.
Volume 1. Released February 2018. 243