Everyday Life at the Museum

Home / Explore / Museums, Galleries & Archives

Everyday objects and popular culture both hold an enviable place at the Musée de la civilisation. As in all museums focused on society, these objects help shed some light on the past and question the present. They are also an integral part of the Museum’s collecting project, which bears witness to the material culture of the occupants of Quebec. It is open to all sectors of human activity, from home life to the work sphere, communications, leisure, and many others. It is a colossal program. And despite the impressive volume of the collections, there are gaps left to fill to better reflect the past and society’s constant evolution.

As a curator, I have several questions. How do we reconcile the fast-growing nature of our collections with storage space limits? Which ordinary objects should we choose to preserve? These are questions that become even more profound when they concern contemporary objects, questions I would like to further delve into by examining a few recent acquisitions.

Into the funnel

The decline in religious communities led to a major donation from the Soeurs de la Charité de Québec (Sisters of Charity of Quebec). The goal was to “provide an account of the community’s history, works, and spiritual power.” In all, over 4,000 objects, along with the community’s archives, were acquired. Because they are part of a coherent and documented whole, the everyday objects paint a rather detailed portrait of the community’s daily life and its major contribution to Quebec society in the areas of education, health, and social services.

The selection meets the set goal. The usual criteria—in particular, representativeness, polysemy, and state of preservation—were applied as part of a “generous” approach to selection. But if other religious communities come knocking at the Museum’s door to ensure the survival of their heritage, what will the answer be? Space constraints and the need to strike a balance between collection sectors will limit the selection. Given our inability to pass on everything to future generations, the importance of choosing well is a great responsibility. I often have doubts. Despite regularly updated analytical tools, policies, and procedures, a degree of subjectivity remains.

You could win a free book!

Amping the megaphone

Like never before, museums are seeking to reflect the lifestyles of all citizens. They have opened themselves to ethnocultural, socio-economic, regional, religious, sexual, generational, and health-related diversity. At the Musée de la civilisation, the recent acquisition of objects from the Lauberivière shelter has made a place for a socio-economic group that was previously absent from the collections: people experiencing homelessness. Though they may appear to be of limited interest on the face of it, the objects retained—salvaged furniture, a telephone, a shopping cart, for example—take on meaning when paired with accompanying testimonies. They were selected at the end of a co-creation process with experienced experts, facilitators, and the Museum’s team.

This example illustrates how seemingly mundane objects can reflect social realities when their human dimension is revealed through complementary accounts. Yet, the importance of intangible heritage such as this leads me to cast a critical eye on past acquisitions, which often arrived in bulk batches and were poorly documented. What do we do with the thousands of silent objects piled up in storage? Can we simply ignore them, or should they be replaced with comparable but better documented objects?

It seems wiser to me to document things in reverse, in small steps. Of course, this approach does not provide access to personal accounts, but basic information about a given object—like its use, its dating, and the name and history of its maker—are essential to shedding some light on it. It is a large-scale mandate, and we must give ourselves time to do the job.

Transfers are considered, with prudence, for objects in poor condition or for which we have multiple copies. Is it necessary to keep 800 planers? I’m not sure. Though it might be hard to imagine such an acquisition today, serial collecting is part of the collections’ history.

“These long scissor-arms allowed me to greet friends and family with bursts of laughter, while keeping to the recommended distance of two metres. But nothing will replace the direct contact of human warmth.”
– Aline Bernier

Looking through the telescope

Another contemporary issue has caught the Museum’s attention: that of rapidly evolving technology and its social impacts. This is why, to coincide with the exhibition A History of Video Games, the Museum put out a public call for donations of video games and game consoles. What games and consoles should be acquired from among the wide array sold since the 1970s? The Museum took popularity in Quebec as its vantage point and teamed up with experts to identify the pieces to acquire. In all, 38 games and 14 consoles were put into the Museum’s reserves.

This collection created via citizens’ contributions was a first for the Museum. The household presence of video games and the opportunity to gather testimonials motivated this choice. I found it stimulating to formulate specific acquisition objectives, as the development of collections is generally subject to donation offers. What stands out for me is that the ideal concept for a collection should always precede an analysis of acquisition proposals.

In 2020, a broader gathering from citizens was carried out to bear witness to the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposals were sorted based on categories established after their reception. Canning jars, a dog collar, and facemasks—with their accompanying stories—were among the items selected. The whole attests to the population’s adaptability and creativity. While the lack of objectivity is flagrant, we could not pass up the opportunity to gather direct traces of this event. I wonder if our successors will share this point of view!

Getting back to the initial question: “Should ordinary objects be preserved?” My answer is “Absolutely.” The choices, however, must be exemplary and justified. In making their way into the Museum, the objects acquire a particular status, a heritage character, whether certain or in-the-making. In his essay The Contemporary Museum Object, An “Object Without Qualities?” French museologist and sociologist Jean Davallon rightfully emphasizes: “The contemporary artifact is more than just the sum of its materiality, it documents a portion of social life, which is the actual object to be made part of our heritage.”

This article originally appeared in Cinquante Merveilles de nos musées: les plus beaux trésors de la Francophonie Canadienne. The special interest publication was part of Projet Portage, a five-year initiative to connect history lovers in French and English Canada, generously supported by the Molson Foundation.