Catawiki

What we do with things is more important than things.

History of the Catalog

In 1992, the varied holdings from the Museum were assembled in index cards and odd peices of notebook paper. As early as 1994 a word-processing file was assembled for the description and organization of both loaned and permanent collection items. This file was transferred to a data-base file. Both of these forays into digital collections management utilized proprietary software. Open-source code was found to be an ideal solution for a small, alternative, "close to the ground" repository. learn less

Categories including Series and Subseries and Vinculum Categories

Categories are often both overlapping (vinculum) and mutable. At the Main Street Museum they include, but are not limited to: Flora; Fauna; Exotica (geographically significant objects); Shoes and Feet (and Tiny Shoes and Feet); Fiber, Textiles and Costumes; Tangled Things; Objects Associated with Famous People; Round Things; Objects with Orifices; Bad Art; Bad Craft; Recreated Artifacts Refused by Dartmouth Realia; Amulets and Sacred Objects; Judæica; Vermontiana; Relics from the Civil War/War Between the States; and Unidentified Mammals or “Flocked Pets.”

Objects as Evidence of Human Culture

Artifacts as Evidence of Religion; Relics and Comparitive Religious Studies

• Religious Relics
• Judaica
• Christian Relics
• Associated Relics
• Sacred Utensils; Consecrated Objects designed for ceremonial Use, including amulets and charms.
• The Evil Eye
  • Good Luck Charms
  • Protection Charms Charms offering protection from harm.
  • Hamsas
  • Witchcraft/Paganism
    • Brooms, and associated rituals

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The intricately woven stands of sweetgrass in this antique basket still smell sweet. Tiny. Abnaki. Delicate. All categories for this artifact.

The American Indian

• Arrowheads (Suction Cups)
• Figurines
• Fragments of Things
• Technology
• Weapons, or Weapon-Like Objects

Geographically Significant Artifacts; Archeology

Oceana

Tumbler which may—or may not—have come to America on the Mayflower.

Historically Significant Artifacts

• Secular Relics
  • Objects Associated with Events
    • Presidential Inaugurations
    • Millenniums
  • Objects Associated with Places
  • Objects Associated with People, see: Notable People, below.
  • Pieces of Wood
• Household Items
  • Food for the Apocalyspe
  • Historic Glassware and "Stand-ins" for Historic Glassware
• Objects Associated with Vermont or New Hampshire Artists
• Objets d'Art
• Office Supplies
  • Paperclips and Paperclip Collections
• Pictures
• Tools
• Recreated Artifacts Denied by Dartmouth Realia
• Silt from the 1927 Flood
• Things, or Fragments of Things Once Owned by, or Associated with, Notable People—Particularly Notable Vermonters
  • Things Left Behind by Musicians

Manuscripts and Journals

• The Heather Collection

Costumes and Clothing

Shoes and more shoes.

Shoes and Feet

• Tiny Shoes and Feet

The Work-day World of White River Junction

• Agricultural Tools and Apparatus
• Cadillac Parts and Memorabilia
• Drugs Coffee and Aspirin, Drugs at the Workplace
• Food
• Keys
• Lithographic Prints and Signage
• Relics of the Architecture of White River Junction, Vermont
• Textile Mill Machinery and Apparatus
• The George Williston Smith Memorial
• Tools

Vinyl pet toy in the shape of a Frisbie pie tin.

Pet Toys

• Cat Toys
• Dog Toys
• Things that were simply chewed on by a pet (see: Categories)

Two Dimensional Evidence Paper; Archive Collections

Manuscripts and Letters

A tin-type in the Museum collection. 20th century. Probably created at a county fair.

Postcards

• The Harvey-Muhly Postcard and Ephemera Compendium and Taxonomy. Studies the way we categorize postcards. There are many unusual views here.
• Dellinger Postcard Album
• Dan Edgar Gillingham Postcards

Sheet Music

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The History of Armaments and Military Technology

Substitutes or Stand-ins for Weaponry and Munitions

(For World War II items see The Leroy Short Sporting and Wild Game Memorial)

The War of the Rebellion/War Between the States

• Botanical Specimens
• Bullets
• Eating Utensils
• Marbles
• Soil Specimens from the North and South

The Rensselaer William Foote Memorial

• Uniforms and Journals Papers

Sound (Audible) Artifacts

• 78-80 rpm Recordings
• Digital Files

see also Sheet Music

Art

Two Dimensional Pieces

• Paintings
• Drawings
• Prints
• Textiles
  • Fabric and Tapestry

Elvis Aaron Presley Visual Art Amalgam

• Relics of Elvis Aaron Presley
• Souvenirs of Elvis

Dogs and cats made of wax.

Bad Craft

Cat, or Unidentified Mammal? You decide.

Fauna; Living, or Apparently Once Living, Objects

The Ossuary; Bones

I Squeak!

The Hall of North American Mammals

• Other Mammalia
• Pets
  • Flocked Pets
    • Unidentified Mammals

Heads (Capitis; Verticis)

This will eventually become the label, and attendant subsidiary labels, delineating the marvels of the Main Street Museum's famed collection of HEADS (We use the Latin terms to distinguish between CAPITIS, the plural of Caput, or head, and VERTICIS, the plural of Vertex, or top, crown, peak, high point).

Research on this point of terminology was generously provided by Daniel Baker.

Specimens of (or Objects relating to) Birds of the Americas

• Eggs

• Nests

• Ornithology, Bird Specimens, all types
• The Humingbird Collection
• Pigeons and Doves
• Thunderbird

Reptiles Amphibians and Serpents

• Snakes
• Toads
• The Sea-Monster

Fish: Aquatic Living With Or Without Bones

• Fresh Water Specimens
• Salt Water Speimens
• Other
• Seashells

El Tiburón.

Entomology; Insects

A drawer of bugs.

Flora; Living, or Apparently Once Living, Objects

Trees; The Animistic Perspective

• The Hall of Fame of Trees
• Pieces of Wood
  • Wood Shavings

Guatemalan Vegetation, unknown type, from the Farrow Collection.

Exotic, Tropic and Sub-tropic Vegetable Samples

• Theodore Roosevelt in Puerto Rico
• Other Exotic Botanical Specimens

Corn; Taxanomic Theories relevant to Zea mays

Small flowers that are, probably, some type of violet. 19th century, c.e.

Mosses and Lichens

Poison Ivy. Banks of the Potomac River.

Minerals; Inanimate, or Apparently Inanimate Objects

• Geological Specimens; Rocks
• Soils (Loam), Silt Sand and Dirt

Other

• Corals
• Aquatic Mammalia
• Barnacle Geese
• Borametz (Lamb Tree)

Vinculum Categories

Tangled Things

• Categories Teeth and More Teeth and especially Color as a Hysterical Reaction, Round Things and Tangled Things created by curation teams of the Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont.