Collector v. Voyeur

It's been one of those days; the bridge was closed, I took the wrong bill to pay with me, the phone died on me midconversation, everyone was yelling at me, I was getting three phone calls at once on my dead phone, everyone else wants me to do their work and cover for them, and I'm having stabbing pains just below my right shoulder.I thought the full moon was last week, not that I get time to look outside. So, it's a good time to vent a little on behalf of collectors. I don't watch "horders" [sic], deliberately, but I did stumble on an episode about a doll collector, and that's what they called her, not a a hoarder. She had fewer dolls in her living room than I did, and lived with a disabled but articulate son who didn't mind the dolls at all. Her other son who did not live there was a different matter. He obviously wanted her house, and maybe her more valuable items, and was threatening her with "adult protective services" and just about anything else. She had a lot of dolls, and liked to repair them. Most were soft bodied or cloth, not very heavy. The claim that her attic floor was "sagging with the weight" was silly; the house may have had structural damage, and I didn't hear sonny dearest offering to repair anything. Then, a prissy, alleged psychologist arrived, but I couldn't har her; a storm was brewing and interfering with delivery.

In short, she was compelled to get rid of her collection, an elderly widow with no husband was taken advantage of. When asked how she "felt" after the dumpster came for two truckloads of her dolls, she said, "I've donated to truckloads of dolls; isn't that enough for you? How do I feel? I regret doing it and I miss them, all of them." That's how I'd feel.

These shows, and the people in them are voyeuristic. I don't want to generalize, but go to about.com and read Denise Van Patten's newsletter/blog where she addresses doll collectors in the media. I have quotes I'll post that are positive about collectors, and the innate hunter/gatherer instincg Marily Gelfman Karp identifies in In Flagrante Collecto. I suggest they have no lives or love of history. Collecting as a hobby began in the ancient world as a means to show wealth, but also to preserve heritage and culture. Read E.D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy, and Craig Childs on archaeology in general, though he is not fond of museums per se. Museum originally came from words meanin Temple of the Muses.

I don't think Rosalie Whyel, Susan Quinlan [even if she was snotty to me!], the late Flora Gill Jacobs, the late John Noble, the late Lenon Hoyte, The Brooklyn Doll and Toy Museum, The Yokohama Doll Museum, Musee de la Poupee, and others would share the view of the H. team. H. is making money; I don't know their credits, but I don't think they are a team of licensed psychiatrists. Nor are all news and reality shows the same. I will watch Cash in the Attic, Mission Organization, American Pickers, Collector Inspector, the old Collecitn across America and The Collectors, and enjoy them. I love both Antiques Roadshows, but enough of the the shows making people out to be "wacky" because they like history, or like to collect or trade with other collectors. Here is a quote from Richard O'Brien's Collecitng Toys, 2nd edition that is positive. The quote is from a New England physican whose hobby is collecting, "researchin and writing aout toys" who started to collect in the 1930's (O'Brien 1). The doctro's pen name is C.B.C. Lee (1). and "[He} was lucky enought ot have a mother who saved his collection while he was disintersted, serving int he Army, gettinghis education, and getting starte in practice. It as still safley in her attic when second childhood set in prematurely 19 years ago, and he has been busily enslaved by the hobby ever since. He has contributed to books and magazines on the subject, publsihed not only in the U.S.A., but also in England, france, Italy, New Zealnd, Australia, and Japan. He is in touch with collectors on five continents, and enthusiastically recommends the hobby as "escape therapy" and an antidoe fo the poressures, anxieties, furstrations and insults of live in the real world" (1).

Are we to give up our past to satsify the reality TV voyeurs? Watch the intro of American Pickers to see their take, and study about great collections and museums, look at the UFDC mission, and read Genevieve Angione, All Dolls are Collectible. Most of us have crowded spaces, but we can't all be Candi Spelling or the Strong Museum, or William Randolph Hearst, legendary and great collectors who should be admired for their work and collections.

The people on the H show can stay out of peoples' lives and homes. It isn't their business, and I suspect some people are duped into appearing on it. Collecting is not a disease; hoarding is a bad habit, like smoking or nail biting. Let's not mix it up or overdramatize it for entertainment purposes.

Here are some books that are more positive, and most are listed in my Bibliography of Dolls and Toys, in case I can't remember all the authors: Mary Randolph Carter, American Junk, Kitchen Junk, Garden Junk, Big City Junk, see her website Susan Sontag, The Volcano Lover Publication by The Strong Museum on the life of Margaret Woodbury Strong Publications by The House of the Rock, including biographies on the life of Alex Jordan Documentaries and monographs of artists who collected, including Rembrandt, Georgia O'Keeffe, Joseph Cornell, and Frida Kahlo Histories on the Library of Alexandria, now rebuilt Books about Rosalie Whyel and her dream Books by Gold Horse [Theriaults} on great doll collections Magnificent Obsessions Cabinets of Curiosities Make Magazine and Wired Magazine A Gentle Madness [book collections] Mary Hilller, Dolls and Doll Makers Books by Luella Hart, Clara Hallard Fawcett, Laura Starr, Janet Pagter Johl and Samuel Pryor Biographies of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Peggy Guggenheim, and Ima Hogg Finally, I keep lists of famous doll collectors, for that matter, I know a lot of judges and doctors with huge collections, many of dolls and figurines; here are a few, living and dead: Demi Moore, Charles Lindbergh and Sam Pryor, John Wayne, Barry Goldwater, Jane Withers, Shirley Temple, Sigmund Freud, Claude Levi-Strauss, Shirley Jackson [100,000 books and artifacts/statues on the occult], Umbero Eco [over 50,000 books]; Clara Scroggins Johnson [over 1 million Christmas Ornaments/artifacts alleged, including ALL the Hallmark ornaments]; Hattie McDaniels, Michael Jackson, Paul Rubens, International Doll Museum in New Dehli;