Lists and memories

The Smithsonian Archives has an exhibition on display right now that has really touched me in an interesting and unexpected way. Lists: To-dos, Illustrated Inventories, Collected Thoughts and Other Artists' Enumerations from the Archives of American Art is exactly as it sounds: a display of some of the lists contained in the Archives. And of course they are beautiful documents, so that is enough of a reason to show them. However, I find myself drawn to them for another, perhaps subtler reason: I too am a list-maker; but it is more than that simple act of creating a list as a memory aid for immediate tasks. What compels people to save those documents? There is a reason that hundreds of thousands of these pieces have made it into the Archives collections. They serve as a reminder of a specific point in time; they give you--and eventually others--a glimpse into your mind. There is something comforting about looking them over as reminders of the past; of accomplishments or failures.

I found this out as I was clearing the Post-It notes from my desk one day. As I was removing the immaculately ordered and executed reminders, I found that it seemed wrong to simply throw them away. Instead I carefully collected them, along with other bits of paper where I had jotted notes or reminders, and placed them in a notebook. It somehow seemed wrong to do anything else. 

People collect many things, but I have found a fond kinship with those that collect their scribblings as a way to document their lives. It is amazing to find that a simple note can be as telling and emotional as a photograph when examined within the context of a person's life. That is what moves me most about the Archives exhibition, that it is a window into the lives of these people.  

 

   To-do list, August 16, 1961 by Eero Saarinen. Aline and Eero Saarinen papers, 1906-1977. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.