Material Culture from the Soviet Union, Russia and Belarus in Harvard Library: Issues in Acquisition, Curation, and Access

• In Event: Ephemera and Scavenger History, or the Struggles of Feeding Cultural Memory from History’s Waste Baskets

Abstract

Collecting objects of material culture (or “real world objects”) boldly crosses the boundaries of library and museum work. Insofar as the definition of a document has been revised continuously over the past 100 years and has expanded to include material objects, libraries recognize the importance of collecting 3D objects as historical sources. Harvard Russian and Belarusian collections follow Harvard Library’s long-standing tradition of artefact collection and include objects ranging from Soviet and Post-Soviet lapel pins to campaign merchandise by post-Soviet political parties, geographically themed commemorative objects, table games, puzzles and other artefacts. Collecting, describing, housing, preserving and opening these objects for research presents a curator with both challenges and rewards.

Author

• Anna Rakityanskaya, Harvard U