from The New York Times
Magic, Music and Toys That Talk Back
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What a fascinating collection of mechanical musical instruments and automatons! A magician removing his own head while a music box tinkles underneath, a magnificent peacock which shows you real feathers when you wind it up, chickens that lay eggs and moving rabbits and bears...All these are part of the Murtogh D. Guinness Collection that the Morris Museum in New Jersey recently acquired.

Much to my amusement and thought, the author of the article asked:

A collection of this scope and style raises questions about the nature of collecting itself. Who are these collectors, and what causes them to gather material like buttons, Barbies and Beanie Babies? Are they visionaries, engaged in everything from historical search and rescue to the scientific cataloguing of objects, or obsessives and pack rats who use the cachet of collecting to disguise hoarding and greed? Who needs all these music boxes, and what drives someone to buy them?

Later he muses:

The world is riddled with anxieties, and each day brings enough evidence of global horrors and local traumas to darken our dreams and dim our ideals. Some go mad under the pressure, others shut themselves off to avoid it. Still others take an active role in the attempt to transform their world, creating institutions or functioning in public life. But some people - and I suspect that Guinness was among them - deal with it all by creating a perfect imaginary world of order and control, where the collector is a kind of god...

So how do we relate to our collections and what is it that we are relating to at museum exhibitions?