Research and Personal archiving

Research

Identity: Javanese Petruk divinities coin amulet – Place of Origin: Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia – Date: c.1940 – Material:Brass – Dimensions: 53mm – Cultural Properties: Anti-black magic; charisma & leadership; luck, fate & fortune; mercy & justice; protection & evasion

Isle of Man Collection is dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing the understanding of the visual and cultural arts and artifacts in private hands through research.

Whether the request is for personal interest, identification, to achieve a greater understanding of a particular art(ifact) or as a valued asset, research can help you gain a greater understanding of your collection and allow you to make smart/invaluable  decisions for future care, resale and stewardship.

Research services are available and any question or concerns will be confidently explored. This can include but is not limited to: artist tracking and biography; potential rarity, value or authenticity; inquiring into the origin or early life of a particular artwork, belonging or small collection group; understanding material, imagery or technique; and cultural use and significance.

Personal archiving

Organizing personal collections can be a way to tell a story about your life or the life of a loved one as well as invaluable primary documentation for those that have achieved great or wonderful things. It may also be an invaluable addition to any ethnographic collection as it records the life and travel of the collector.

However, personal archiving is not just for acclaimed or renowned people its for everyone. If you archive it, it will be there for somebody in a later generation and there may be one person who really cares about their family history and will be glad to have it.

Old letters, diaries, photos, drawings, receipts, mementos and personal belongings give you a sense of people, even if there’s not much to the letters and cards. The lives of average people can turn into wonderful cultural and period time capsules for future generations if managed and archived correctly. These items provide a voice and by grouping them together you release a kind of narrative.

Isle of Man Collections provides help and advice for those interested in personal archiving along with starting points and provision for those wishing to tackle daunting inherited personal archives.