Browse Exhibits (1 total)

Reservoir of Memories: A Community Collection

“The finding of an object is in fact a refinding of it.” –Sigmund Freud

An old brick. A Christmas tree. A pair of ice skates. The objects collected here are ordinary things, but they convey the poignancy of lived experiences in the neighborhood. Objects do not have to be rare or unique to be considered valuable.

These are the artifacts of everyday life, the things that through the course of time have become invested with a certain emotional significance; their meanings revealed by the voices of those we interviewed. Many of these artifacts are not “authentic” but represent our attempt at giving physical shape to the memories that have been so generously shared with us. Like the act of remembering itself, our finding of these objects – given new life through their display – is not only to recover a lost past, however imperfectly, but to illuminate something of the present moment. 

In this online exhibit, we have put together the stories and objects collected from our interviewees, research papers written by students in the class, as well as documentation of the exhibit at the Mediator. Together these materials give us a sense of the many ways in which one place could hold significance to different people.