Nigh Ox Newsletter

December 2001

On Collections and Curating

Carroll Abbey once read, "A collection is more valuable than the sum of all its parts." Certainly anyone looking through the Abbey Collection can agree, but it takes more than gathering together stuff to make a collection. Steve Stier, Ron Smith, Sewell Mason, John Sarge, Dick Roosenberg, and Dulcy Perkins, all collectors in their own way, spent a day at the Abbey Collection Building discussing the aspects of curating.

Collecting is generally driven by a mission or a purpose, and Carroll's goal was to preserve the inventiveness of American farmers from being lost in the fence rows. He kept in mind the comparative relationships of the tools' uses, and grouped them accordingly. Tillers' mission is not just to preserve the tools, but the skills and trades that were, and are, so important to rural communities and economies. The missions are complementary, but preserving and presenting will take a lot of planning and time.

The group decided to gather together timber framing tools for a display. There was very little there, which brings up a point valuable to collectors--knowing collection and farm history well enough to recognize what is not there. While Carroll may have had no strong draw to timber framing, and collected only a few chisels, a boring mill, mallets, and an intricate joint from a barn, Tillers' collection is used on the timber frames that we build. The small box of items got the group thinking about possibilities. The tools and the joint laying there did not fully express what it takes to make a barn. But if there were drawings of the barn layout, the boring mill was set up drilling a hole in a beam and wood chips scattered around, some chisels and slicks and an explanation of their purpose, as well as photographs of raisings and of the people who laid out the beams and lifted the structure that was the very heart of the farm, then perhaps the importance of a few chisels and mallets would not be lost on an audience. And this is only one piece of the greater story that was American Rural Life.

An important part of a collection is the stories behind the objects. Mrs. Haskel's 1830's dream of a machine that cuts grain and separates the seed from the straw is only one example of the personal histories that shaped our heritage. There are many more stories of the people who worked with these tools, and of special ways the tools were used, that have never been published in the owners manuals.

There is a lot of work to do with the Collection, and a lot to be learned from its parts. The Collection as it stands is incredible. To interpret and present it in a way that follows the innovations of the times will further its ability to teach valuable information to farmers of the world, as well as save our rich history from being lost in the tall grass and trees surrounding the fields.

Carroll continues to support his collection work through an endowment fund that he created at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Donations by Michigan residents to the Abbey Farms Historical Fund at the Foundation may qualify Michigan donors to a 50% tax credit. Call the Foundation at 616/381-4416.