Archive Trails
A Museum Colour Search Can Find the Photograph’s Background Too
Searching a collection by colour feels like searching the objects themselves. Yet the colours may have been extracted from photographs, where backgrounds…
A closer look at material history
Explore the object files
Collection Notes
Lisa Krohn’s Wrist Computer Is a Concept to Read on Its Own Terms
A historical technology concept can resemble something familiar today without being an early retail version of it. Lisa Krohn’s wrist computer is more…
Material Histories
A Celluloid Comb Places an Early Plastic in an Ornamental Role
A comb can be both a practical object and an ornament. A museum record naming celluloid invites us to examine that combination without assuming the material…
Material Histories
A Vacuum Bottle Record Separates the Glass Vessel from Its Steel Case
A museum object called a vacuum bottle may contain several materials with different roles. Reading the catalogue description by component gives the familiar…
Archive Trails
An Archive Box Number Organises Storage, Not Necessarily Historical Sequence
Use an archive box reference to locate material without assuming its storage order reproduces the order in which events or documents were created.
Archive Trails
A Photograph’s Subject Date and Print Date May Be Different
Distinguish when a scene was photographed from when a particular print was produced, and preserve uncertainty when a catalogue gives only one date.
Material Histories
Historic Care Instructions Are Evidence, Not a Modern Treatment Plan
Study old product-care instructions as historical claims while keeping them separate from decisions about treating a surviving collection object.
Archive Trails
An Accession Year Is Not Automatically the Year an Object Was Made
Keep acquisition information separate from manufacturing dates when reading an object record or interpreting a number that appears to contain a year.