Ep. 184 "Collection Culture" Pt. 1

The “Collector’s gene” and the types of Collections: * Because of the gotta-have-it (FOMO) * The flip side of this : Hoarding or the fear of being without it (FOBW) * Functionality (gear, tools, etc) * Nostalgia * Investment (CP - It might be worth a lot someday? I can sell it someday for more money than I paid for it?) * Scholarship/skills * this is where ‘memorabilia’ tends to kick in “objects kept or collected because of their historical interest, especially those associated with memorable people or events.” * Time/Place (travel or to be worldly) (CP - Attempting to garner admiration from friends or acquaintances for how exciting and adventurous a life you’ve led. See Instagram.) PAST: Background and History History: First known ‘collections’ beyond hunting and gathering Collecting is a practice with a very old cultural history. In Mesopotamia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamia), collecting practices have been noted among royalty and elites as far back as the 3rd millennium BCE.[5] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting#cite_note-5) Now out of this I think this is were we start to see the curiosity shops, and bringing that home to the curio cabinet. And in scholarship the concept of the museum * “*The world’s first public museum, the **Ashmolean* (https://www.ashmolean.org/article/the-story-of-the-worlds-first-public-museum)* in Oxford” * Now out of collectors comes community around collections; we see this in all things. Collecting “The hobby of *collecting* includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual collector. Collections differ in a wide variety of respects, most obviously in the nature and scope of the objects contained, but also in purpose, presentation, and so forth. The range of possible subjects for a collection is practically unlimited, and collectors have realized a vast number of these possibilities in practice, although some are much more popular than others.” NOW a tangent; Collecting and Hobby (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby) go hand in hand so ‘get off your collecting high horse?“: In the 16th century, the term "hobyn" had the meaning of "small horse and pony". The term "hobby horse (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_horse_(toy))" ... As we talk about next episode; is digital and FOMO feeding the darker side of ‘collecting’ “Collecting for most people is a choice, but for some it can be a compulsion, sharing characteristics with obsessive hoarding (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding). ... Reggie Jackson https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacksre01.shtml This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bellinghampodcast.substack.com