{"id":15,"date":"2013-09-11T16:03:23","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T16:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/researchbdev.wpengine.com\/a-world-of-objects\/?p=15"},"modified":"2013-12-19T21:25:02","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T21:25:02","slug":"the-process-of-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/the-process-of-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Process of Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Andrea Rosen, BCMA Curatorial Assistant<\/p>\n

As curators from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum, and Special Collections came together to plan the exhibition The Object Show: Discoveries in Bowdoin Collections<\/i><\/a>, two things needed to happen simultaneously: 1) we had to decide what the show was about; 2) we had to decide what we would put in the show! Thus long, fruitful conversations among the show\u2019s planners about the concepts of the exhibition were often followed by trips into storage at the Museum of Art. Certainly we all had ideas about objects we wanted to include, but this show was also about finding the objects we\u2019d forgotten about\u2014the strange and unique pieces that had for various reasons made their way into Bowdoin collections, and had for too long been hidden away in storage. This would involve a process not of focused searching but of leisurely browsing. On April 9, 2013, 6 curators fumbled through art storage, opening drawers and peering back into deep shelves, seeking unusual objects that would tell fascinating stories. As we started opening drawers, we were at first baffled by what looked like random parts \u2013 a glass tube, a crank, a handle, metal fittings \u2013 before we realized that they belonged to our eighteenth-century air pump. \u201cHow does it work exactly?\u201d asked Sarah Montross, Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow. Consulting Curator for Decorative Arts, Laura Sprague, pulled out a copy of a page from Joseph Callender\u2019s Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences<\/i>. She pointed to a picture on the left that looks like an armoir. \u201cIt looks like a piece of furniture,\u201d she explained. \u201cThis is what it looks like when it\u2019s in your house or parlor, for the rare person who had it. And then, you take the cabinet off, and you\u2019d get the parts out of the case, and you\u2019d assemble it, and there\u2019d be a glass jar, like a bell jar, that would fit on a round tablet. And you\u2019d use the crank to pull the air out of the vacuum chamber. And so you could do experiments like, how long can you keep a bunch of grapes alive and ripe, without rotting.\u201d Laura believes that James Bowdoin II may have funded the building of this particular device. \u201cThis was being built in the middle of the Revolutionary War, when not many people had the money that would have been required to pay for a case like that. We know that the instrument maker was a Salem minister named John Prince, who was using pretty easily attainable parts to create the instrument itself, but it has this incredible case that is like none other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Consulting<\/a>

Consulting Curator for Decorative Arts, Laura Sprague, points to a picture of the Museum\u2019s eighteenth-century air pump.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another drawer opened to enthusiastic exclamations, revealing a glittering ancient Greek diadem from the 8th<\/sup> century BCE. \u201cThat\u2019s really unique in our collection,\u201d remarked Joachim Homann, curator of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. \u201cIs it woven gold?\u201d asked Laura. Jim Higginbotham, Associate Curator of Ancient Art,\u00a0 answered: \u201cNo, it\u2019s repouss\u00e9 [a metalworking technique that creates a low relief design], with some riveted decoration. It\u2019s made of an alloy of gold and silver called electrum.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s cheaper!\u201d joked Joachim.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The curators open a drawer, discovering a Greek diadem from the 8th century BCE.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe also have an ancient musical instrument,\u201d added Jim, pulling out a curved ivory flute. It\u2019s Roman, from the 1st<\/sup> or 2nd<\/sup> century, and Joachim was astonished that it\u2019s actually ancient. Genevieve LeMoine, curator of the Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum,\u00a0 commented that they have an ocarina, a small wind instrument shaped somewhat like a blimp, that would complement it well. \u201cIs it whale bone or something?\u201d asked Joachim. \u201cNo, it\u2019s clay,\u201d she answered, \u201cit was part of the Greely expedition,\u201d an ill-fated Arctic expedition led by Adolphus Greely in 1881. \u201cDid you know you can turn your iPhone into an ocarina?\u201d said Jim. He proceeded to describe an app for that, and to demonstrate it on his own phone.<\/p>\n

\"Associate<\/a>

Associate Curator of Ancient Art, Jim Higginbotham, pulls out a Roman flute from the 1st or 2nd century.<\/p><\/div>\n

As we started opening drawers of textiles, Joachim remembered two particularly stunning fabric samples designed by Rockwell Kent, the early-20th<\/sup>-century American modernist painter and Monhegan Island resident. \u201cWhen was the last time these were out? I\u2019ve never seen those!\u201d exclaimed Laura. \u201cThe colors are so well-preserved that I hardly recognize this as fabric,\u201d said Joachim. \u201cAre they printed or woven?\u201d I asked. \u201cPrinted,\u201d Laura answered. \u201cI think they\u2019re samples of a furnishing fabric.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A paper covering is lifted, revealing a printed textile designed by early-20th-century American modernist painter Rockwell Kent.<\/p><\/div>\n

As we wrapped up, we felt satisfied with all we\u2019d found, just by browsing. \u201cI\u2019m glad you have the same sense of discovery, because when I don\u2019t have a reason to open all these drawers, I just don\u2019t do it,\u201d said Joachim. Two problems remained to us: 1) how to squeeze so many fascinating objects into one show; 2) how much research there was to conduct on objects that Bowdoin has owned for years and years, but whose many lives have remained shrouded in mystery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Andrea Rosen, BCMA Curatorial Assistant As curators from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-Macmillan Arctic Museum, and Special Collections came together to plan the exhibition The Object Show: Discoveries in Bowdoin Collections, two things needed to happen simultaneously: 1) we had to decide what the show was about; 2) we had to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":25,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-behind-the-scenes","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.bowdoin.edu\/a-world-of-objects\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}