collections of old stuff

Myth is the public dream, and dream is the private myth. - Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell collected myths. I have always admired his work. That is why his quote is often the beginning of one of this blog. I also love photographs and use them to illustrate the posts. Today's illustration of perhaps one of the most valuable photos known. I have posted about it previously here: Edward Steichen's Long Island 1904.
I am an inveterate collector and I enjoy seeing others's collections. Thus, I love to visit museums. The buildings themselves are often just as interesting as the objects housed there. Any kind of museum can draw me in to walk slowly and savor what is collected and displayed there. Almost anywhere I travel I will visit the best ones in that area.
And every day I visit the world via my computer. One of my "internet tools" is a news aggregator called Bloglines. Thus I regularly read updated news items from a large number of websites such as papers, electronic media, blogs, etc. Happy News.com is an interesting site, despite the groans just seeing its name might engender. Here are three articles I collected about collecting that I want to share:

1. Things have changed as far as sensitivity towards minority rights. Individuals today are not nearly as free to keep U.S. Indian artifacts in their own private collections. As a result there has been a donation to the state of Native American remains.
   
2. But not everything has changed. Yale continues to insist on retaining its collection of materials from the Machu Picchu Inca site in Peru. The government of Peru wants it back, and threatens to sue Yale University.
   
3. Before and during World War II German Nazis stole from Jewish owners of art. Now the Internet is helping those owners recover their long lost property.

Though I am a "white woman," I was raised (on a homestead allowed by the tribe) on an Indian Reservation. I am of retirement age so I have witnessed with pleasure the increased empowerment of Native Americans. One of the biggest things worth celebrating is the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. If you are ever in Washington, D.C., stop by for a visit.
My topical post today at South by Southwest is about accountability.
Tags: Native American museums collecting art antiques