Category:Stand-ins

A glass tumbler that may, or may not, have come over on the Mayflower. Lost from a Burlington, Vermont collection. The Stand-in from a thrift store carries its story, and its physical presence, forward.

In the 1930s a woman donated a glass tumbler to the Fleming. A glass tumbler? So what? Then she explained that it had arrived on the Mayflower. Suddenly it took on additional allure. A curator long-gone wrote on its label, “But can she prove it?” It doesn't matter. Today the original tumbler has disappeared—but a stand-in is exhibited in its place. But I can't prove it...—Joe Citro, VPR, June, 2000.

Looking Through Objects

Stand-ins, or substitute items are one of the most useful, and perhaps emblematic, of all Main Street Museum groupings. As we study material culture we study the syndrone of attachment to objects. And if the object is missing it seems fitting to replace it. After all, the meaning of objects lie in their latent qualities, their connotations, the narrative that exists seperately from the static reality of the boundaries of the objects physical form.

Dartmouth Substitutes