Fading black-and-white photographs and yellowing handwritten letters in
a safe deposit box. The records of a historic African American business
found in a dumpster. The conscious decision to destroy private papers.
The destruction of archives by chance and nature. All illustrate what we
collect and value in our cultural landscape.


 

Lost and Found, a new exhibition opening at the Library of Virginia on
February 27, examines the constantly changing fabric of our world.
Things disappear, sometimes almost without notice-signs, buildings, even
towns-and others go into attics, basements, and landfills. Some are
saved and carefully stored and preserved; others intentionally
destroyed, sometimes dramatically.

 

Visitors can explore the various layers of the world of Lost and Found,
from the spectacular destruction of archives by chance and nature to the
intentional destruction of personal papers, from the deliberate
preservation of family items to the careful assemblage of materials in a
bank safe deposit box. You will be asked: "What do I collect and value?"
and to consider what is ephemeral. The experience of the exhibition can
be contemplative or interactive.

 

The Library of Virginia holds the most comprehensive collection of
materials related to Virginia's history and culture. Yet these materials
are only a fraction of what once existed. Fire, war, flood, decay, and
digital "data rot" have obliterated pieces of our individual and
collective past. Lost and Found explores examples of this
destruction-from the fires during Bacon's Rebellion to Martha
Washington's burning of her correspondence with George Washington to the
floods and fires that destroyed records kept in courthouses around the
state-and doesn't neglect the story of mundane losses from deteriorating
acetate negatives and floppy disks.

 

The exhibition also examines how people collect and order the records of
their lives through scrapbooks, time capsules, private libraries, family
papers, and collections of advertising cards-all reflecting how we see
the world through the selection and ordering of such material. Some
objects that we collect have deep personal and governmental meaning.

 

Most of us collect something-baseball cards or autographs, books or
family mementos. Many of us create scrapbooks that reflect our personal
interests. Lost and Found showcases the personal and the professional,
the ephemeral and the profound, examples of personal collections,
scrapbooks, and time capsules. It tells large stories and small ones.
The exhibition highlights items in the Library's vast collections that
offer intriguing glimpses into our past and show the promise of new
endeavors such as the Civil War 150 Legacy Project in garnering greater
insight into our shared history.

Lost and Found runs through August 25, 2012, and is free and open to the
public Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, excluding state
holidays.

 

 

 

Barbara C. Batson

Exhibitions Coordinator

The Library of Virginia

800 East Broad Street

Richmond, VA 23219-8000

804-692-3518

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