Snapshots, broken toys, high school diaries, a locket
with secret compartments for tiny photographs,
well-read love letters, a piece of sea glass,
shoeboxes filled with bits of ephemera from daily
life. These were some of the objects that were part
of a 2001 exhibition entitled "recollections" at Macy
Gallery, Teachers College Columbia University in New
York City. It was through this exhibition that I
explored how objects provoke narratives in families.
As a consequence of the exhibition, there seemed to
be a need for further understanding of how
individuals assign meanings to their...