MOBILE MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ARTIFACTS

2017, Taos, New Mexico

Dried marigold flowers, string

Gift of Cody Hooks

Cody grew these flowers in his garden—descended from marigold seeds he originally collected in Santa Fe several years ago and has been growing and harvesting ever since. He hangs them on the rearview mirror of his truck to keep himself mindful as he travels across Taos County for his job as a reporter for the Taos News. They carry with them a blessing “may all Beings have peace and happiness, may all Beings be free from pain and suffering.”

In the season of his first marigolds, Cody was driving across the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge early one morning for a reporting job when he lost control of his truck. It ping-ponged on the bridge until the railings eventually stopped his vehicle from going over, and saved Cody. Before and since his accident, Cody has reported on the bridge—a site charged with heavy energy and known as a place where people go to take their lives. But, having still to cross it several times a week, Cody sees the bridge as having given him life. The marigolds hang on the rearview mirror to remind him to be mindful and present.

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n.d., Questa, New Mexico

Metal

Gift of Dawn Provencher

In 2014 Dawn and her husband retired and moved to Questa from southern New Mexico. They bought an old adobe house that had once belonged to Juanita Souchet, the curandera (healer) of the village of Questa, New Mexico. Mrs. Souchet passed away several years before they purchased the house, and it had been cleaned and vacated by her son. The house was bare. Yet on at least five occasions, when Dawn or her husband voiced a need for something simple while they were preparing the house to move into, the item would appear: a stepstool for painting, a hatchet to chop kindling. One day, while moving into the house, Dawn expressed the need for a water bowl for her 18-year-old chihuahua. She opened a cupboard and found this single metal bowl sitting on an otherwise empty shelf. Days later, a neighbor stopped by and noticed the chihuahua drinking out of the bowl in front of the house. Oh yes, said the neighbor. That’s the bowl Mrs. Souchet always left out for the neighborhood cats.

TAO16

2008, Taos, New Mexico

materials

Gift of Alice Ko

Alice purchased this tool belt at a thrift store in 2008. She had always wanted to build things and to become a professional carpenter, but at the time it seemed like a distant dream. She didn’t know any female carpenters. Several years later, in a moment of personal transformation and after the dissolution of a relationship, Alice got her first job helping to build a house. She was the only woman on the job site and she wore this tool belt. She has since learned that being prepared and owning your own tools is the best way to earn the professional respect of male coworkers. At the end of the day on the job, if there were ever a tool that Alice didn’t already own and had needed to borrow, she would go out and buy it. Now, Alice has more tools than will fit in this belt.

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c. 1960s, New Haven, Connecticut

Gift of Jack Hitt

In 1997 Jack purchased a house previously used as a retirement home for Catholic monks. He found this painting in the attic among similar portraits of religious figures and a collection of books dating to the 1960s that discussed how to talk with young people about sex.

c. 2000s, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Sex Wax, dirt, hair, ocean salt

Gift of Greg Sacca

Every year or so, Greg cleans the deck of his surfboard. He scrapes off the old wax, forms it into a ball, and replaces it with fresh Sex Wax brand surfwax. He saves the old, dirty balls in a shed outside his house, and enjoys sharing his wax collection with friends and company. These three balls come from Sacca’s growing collection, and may date back as far as eleven years.

2013, Taos, New Mexico

Paper, plastic

Gift of Matt Thomas

In midsummer of 2013 Matt picked up this sticker at New Mexico Equality’s booth at the Taos Pride celebration in Kit Carson Park. At the time of acquiring the sticker, Matt and his partner, Richard, asked the organization when they anticipated that same sex couples would have a right to marry in New Mexico. Their response wasn’t good. They said it could be a matter of years before there was any movement on this front. The couple left saddened, but optimistic. Just months later, on August 28th, 2013, Matt and Richard received their marriage license. In a turn of events, several counties in New Mexico started to give permits and they were one of the first couples to receive one in Taos. They married six months later.

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2014, Providence, Rhode Island

Plastic, construction paper, paint

Gift of Michael Borgel

Michael won this trophy for his first-prized pineapple juice at the Juicetown U.S.A Competition, a theme party thrown by his friend Joe, who loves combinations of juice, and also combinations of cheese. Joe challenged guests to blend together various fruits to create distinctive, enjoyable flavors, bestowing this trophy on the juice that offered the greatest sensory pleasures. 

c. 1990s, Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Plastic

Gift of John Campopiano

Honky Tonk Man is one of many wresting figurines from John Campopiano’s childhood collection. An enormous fan of professional wresting, John would wage wrestling matches between his figurines. His grandmother, by way of Honky Tonk Man, was one of his most frequent opponents. Originally, Honky Tonk Man wielded a plastic acoustic guitar, though this weapon has been lost in battle or in time.     

2003, McClave, Colorado

Paper, ink

Gift of Savannah Summers

When Savannah was seven years old she found a book she wanted to buy at her school’s annual book fair in the library. On the last day of the fair she was a dollar short. Later that day running on the track during P.E. class, Savannah found this dollar bill, crumpled and ripped into several pieces scattered on the ground. Elated, she gathered as many pieces of it as she could and taped them together. She thought the dollar had magically come to her so she could buy the book. However, upon her attempt to purchase the book the librarian would not accept the currency because of its condition. She went home empty handed.

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c. 1988

Badlands National Monument, South Dakota

Denim, paint

Gift of Private Collector

This scrap of fabric was once part of a denim jacket, stenciled with “Badlands” to commemorate a solo-backpacking trip the owner took in 1988. He was hiking alone in a sage creek area when he noticed a buffalo bull eyeing him from 200 yards away. He looked across the creek bed, to where a group of buffalo cows were grazing, and realized he was standing between the bull and his herd. The bull charged at him, stampeding in his direction in a cloud of dust. He ran as fast as he could, still carrying his heavy backpack, and scaled a willow tree to find safety in its branches. 

c. 2010s, Greensboro, North Carolina

Plastic

Gift of Lio Hawkins

Lio’s parents obtained this rattle at a side-of-the-road garage sale in Mebane, North Carolina in December 2011 after three months of touring in a motor home as the band “The Golden Hearts”. They settled in Greensboro, North Carolina, where Lio played with the rattle extensively and in conjunction with dump trucks or other imagined construction vehicles. In August 2013 the rattle was packed for a subsequent cross-country tour and relocation to Colorado. It was re-discovered in November 2013 in a box obtained from storage. Upon investigation, the rattle had been ostensibly outgrown and Lio instead used it as a building block to create castles, etc. 

c. 1990s, Bethany, Connecticut

Plastic, metal

Gift of Bill Fischer

Bill Fischer last used this remote control and its corresponding television set to watch the news on September 11, 2001. Prior to that day, the television had not been turned on for years. 

c. 2010s, Hartford, Connecticut

Glass, plastic, metal

Gift of Stewart Miller

A customer brought this pair of melted Prada glasses to Stewart Miller, an optometrist and owner of “Opticians Unlimited” in Hartford, Connecticut. She presented the glasses as evidence that she needed a new pair, explaining that these fell off of her face while she was bending over to put something in the oven. The glasses cooked for 50 minutes alongside her baked goods. 

c. 1960s, St. Louis, Missouri

Wood, lead

Gift of Patricia Bridgman

Working as a reporter and news director, Patricia’s father used these pencils to edit news copy at an NBC News Affiliate in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1960s. As a young girl, Patricia used these pencils to fill in her eyebrows. 

2015, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Plastic, metal

Gift of Sky Tallgrass

Sky Tallgrass was supposed to take his son on a weekend camping trip to the White Mountains. Fuses kept blowing, and the lights to his pop-up camper, which he pulled with a Dodge Charger from the early 2000s, didn’t work. Because they were leaving after dark, the lights were essential, and Sky had to cancel the trip. 

1919, New Haven, Connecticut

Paper, ink

Gift of Chuck Peterson

Chuck found these letters tucked away into the rafters of the third floor of a house he purchased in the 1990s. They date to 1919 and describe a secret love affair.

c. 2000s, Seattle, Washington

Cotton, thread

Gift of Scott Schuldt

Scott received this shirt as a gift from The Boeing Company, where he worked as Lead Engineer from 1985-2005 calculating aerodynamic and inertial loads for commercial airliners. Upon receiving the button-up, he cut off the sleeves and wore it to a meeting. He later added the “Wendal” gas station name tag.

1940s, Los Angeles, California

Wood, paper, ink

Gift of Laurelin Kruse, Los Angeles, California

The widow of Leonard Leslie Morris kept this journal between 1941-1945, chronicling every flower she put on her husband’s grave. Her record abruptly stops halfway through the notebook. In May 2013 the owner of an antique store in Creede, Colorado discovered the notebook in a trunk of goods acquired from a dealer in Oklahoma. Laurelin Kruse purchased it from the antique store for $40.

2011, Buck Island Ranch, Florida

Insect specimen

Gift of Marty Keil

This is the first dragonfly caught by Marty Keil for his entomology course at Yale University. He caught it in his net while patrolling along a small pond in Florida. He said these insects are among the most difficult to catch, and most collectors make the mistake of using their entire arm to move the net. It’s all in the quick flick of the wrist.

1993, Washington, DC

Metal, paint

Gift of Kat Duff

This necklace was made by Kat’s friends, Heather Abernathy and Mary McCarthy, to commemorate the 1993 Lesbian and Gay March on Washington for equal rights (this was before the acronym was expanded). Heather and Mary sold these necklaces to fellow marchers in order to cover their travel costs. The medallion was made to imitate a soldier’s dog tag, with a pink triangle, to call on the marcher’s demands: an end to the ban on lesbians and gays in the military, equal rights in housing and the workplace, and increased funding to fight AIDS. At the time, it did not even occur to them to demand the right to same sex marriage.

Kat held on to this medallion for 25 years to remember the courage and creativity of her friends Heather and Mary, who have since died, and to remind herself that it can take a long time and many people to make (and keep) equal rights).

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n.d., New Haven, Connecticut

Cotton, thread

Gift of Anastacia D’Aiuto

Anastacia cross-stitched this bib for an infant boy named Joey, but by the time she met him he was too old to actually use it. 

n.d., Alamosa, Colorado

Metal, leather

Gift of Nora McBride

In 2008 Nora worked as a driver for the Alamosa Bus Company. On one occasion she drove a man to a substance abuse treatment facility in Pueblo, Colorado. She and the man knew each other from the homeless shelter, where Nora had previously worked, and he had been a guest many times. Upon dropping him off at the facility, he asked that she safeguard his knife for him until he could return for it after receiving treatment. She agreed to take the knife, but never saw the man again. Nora quit her position as a driver after two months. Unable to sustain business in a town of 8,000 people, the Alamosa Bus Company shut down shortly thereafter.

2014, Española, New Mexico

Tin

Gift of Rafa Tarín

This tin angel was created by a New Mexico artist in commemoration of the life of Victor Villalpando. Rafa knew Victor through the circus and dance classes she held at the Peñasco Theater, and through the surrounding dance community. Victor was a dancer and youth mentor, and had recently been accepted to New Mexico School for the Arts. He was killed by the Española Police on June 8, 2014.

n.d., New Haven, Connecticut

Lead, plastic

Gift of Lou of Industrial Metal Recycling

In the 2000s Lou cleaned out the Winchester Repeating Arms factory. This mass of lead remains from the cleanup and Lou said at one time it would have been used to make bullets. He said the Winchester factory was haunted. While he was cleaning it out, one moment it would be totally silent, and the next he could hear all the machines running, as if people were working in the building.

n.d., New Haven, Connecticut         

Leather, thread

Gift of Frank Suraci

This hat belonged to one of Frank’s tenants, who resided in one of his apartments for nine months. The man who occupied the apartment prior to this tenant lived there for twenty-three years before moving out to be closer to his new job. The new tenant was loved by all. Nine-months after the tenant moved in, Frank discovered him in the apartment after he’d been dead for several days. 

c. 2000s, Littleton, Massachusetts

Plastic, metal

Gift of Private Collector

The owner of these flip phones purchased his first LG CU405 in 2009 from an AT&T store on 7th Ave. in Brooklyn, New York after he lost his previous phone. He chose the 405 because it was the most basic flip phone available in this time period, and he continues to use the same model to this day. The life of a given phone is unpredictable, and when necessary, used replacements are still readily available on eBay.

1995, Alamogordo, New Mexico

Fabric

Gift of Heather Bergerson

Heather was given this stuffed animal in the early years of her childhood. She named it Meeko after Pocahontas’s sidekick in the Disney film, and took the stuffed raccoon everywhere with her, protecting him with her dear life. Caring for Meeko helped Heather through a traumatic time in her life, and is a testament to childhood imagination, resilience, and strength.

TAO19

2014, Los Angeles, California

Paper, ink

Gift of Emma Speer

In July 2014 nineteen-year-old Emma Speer visited a classmate in Los Angeles. They’d been corresponding through text messages and sharing their ideas for screenplays, short stories, and science fiction novels through a series of Google Docs. On a whim, he invited her to visit and she bought her plane ticket that night. This parking ticket is from that visit. She described the trip as the kind of romance you can only imagine as a kid, but now she knows it can happen in real life.

c. 2010s, Sacramento, California

Plastic

Gift of John Andolsek

John purchased these clear sunglasses at a truck stop in California so that he could journey home to Santa Fe, New Mexico on his motorcycle in the middle of the night. John had traveled by motorcycle for the opening of an exhibition of his paintings at a gallery in Los Angeles. It was the middle of summer, and with temperatures over 100 degrees it was much too hot to ride during daylight hours. Waiting for dark, he bought these clear sunglasses so that his eyes would be shielded and he would still be able to see on his long ride back to New Mexico.

TAO13

c. 1960s, Blanca, Colorado

Lye soap

Gift of Dawn Ortiz

This glass bottle contains lye soap from a batch Dawn made with her grandmother one summer in the 1960s. As a child Dawn spent summers with her grandmother in a small town in southern Colorado, and helped her perform household tasks such as washing clothes, canning fruits and vegetables, and cooking. 

c. 1950s, Woodbridge, Connecticut

Paper

Sarah Shepherd

These bottle caps and milk cartons come from a once-thriving dairy farm in Woodbridge, Connecticut. The farm no longer has cows on the property, but earns its income from its chickens and goats, whose diet ranges from hay to salvaged donuts.­

c. 19th Century, New Haven, Connecticut

Brick

Gift of Stephen V. Kobasa

Stephen rescued this brick from a demolished 19th Century building on Wall Street in New Haven, Connecticut.

n.d., New Haven, Connecticut

Metal

Gift of the New Haven Parking Authority

These meters were once installed outside of Union Station in New Haven, Connecticut. At that point in time, current Facility Manager Josh Vega had the job of emptying quarters from the meters, which frequently jammed and became further congested as customers attempted to unblock them by adding more and more coins. Both parking meter models became obsolete when the Authority switched to machines that accepted credit cards, an update that decreased the frequency of coin jams in the new machines.

2013, Evanston, Illinois

Paint, canvas, wood

Gift of Brendan Lewis and Danielle Perszyk

Pool Boy 1, Pool Boy 2, & Pool Boy 3 decorated the walls of a coffee shop where Brendan and Danielle had their first polyamorous date with a woman named Erin in the summer of 2013. They purchased the trio of paintings to commemorate the occasion.

n.d., New Haven, Connecticut

Plastic, paper

Gift of Eric

Eric found this poster inside a brand-new Nike bag in the “Yale District,” alongside other items left behind by Yale students after the 2013-2014 academic year. A recovering addict and currently homeless, he was grateful to find the bag in order to carry his things with him on his daily walks around the city. He was unfamiliar with the film “The Graduate” and suggested it might be a movie or play poster. He has been sober for several months and expects to secure housing soon.

n.d.

Quartz

Gift of Rob Kancler

Rob received this crystal from a woman named Sandy at a Yoga retreat. Sandy said the crystal was in her pocket when she died of kidney failure and was revived by paramedics. After the event, she took the crystal out of her pocket and noticed a newly formed protuberance on the quartz.   

c. 2010s, Taos, New Mexico

Leather, metal, plastic

Gift of Jana Greiner

Jana received this pair of skates from a coworker, whom she met building houses together (Jana specializes in adobe finishing with clay alis). The coworker attended a fundraiser for Jana’s roller derby team, with this pair of skates in hand as his donation. Jana had been playing for awhile and already had a great pair of skates. And he’d told her they were a size 12—much too large for her. She took them to practice occasionally thinking someone might skate in them, but no one ever did. Then, after the team dissolved, she took them home and put them on a shelf like bookends. There the skates sat untouched for years, though they incited many conversations about the joys of skating.

Recently, Jana took these skates down to dust them. She tried them on for the first time and realized they are a men’s size seven. Close to her size, but just a smidge too small.

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c. 1928, Providence, Rhode Island

Pine

Gift of Daniel S. Kelman

This corner moulding came from a Providence, Rhode Island apartment building built by Daniel S. Kelman’s grandfather in 1928 and occupied by his family until 1986. The building is slated for conversion to a Montessori School. 

c. 1895, Hartford, Connecticut

Brass

Gift of Daniel S. Kelman

This doorknob came from an apartment in Hartford, Connecticut, where Daniel S. Kelman lived from 1978-1980, until he was evicted so the building could be converted into an office. The doorknob was manufactured by P&F Corbin Company, which produced decorative hardware in the latter half of the nineteenth century, outfitting many prominent buildings from Boston to Philadelphia.

n.d., Hartford, Connecticut

Paper, wood, glass, metal, paint

Gift of Ben Silver

Ben Silver found this photograph of the Connecticut State Capitol in the Hartford Medical Society building, where he lived with a group of opera singers from 2010-2011. The building once housed a collection of antique medical equipment, some of which remains in the abandoned building today. The first machine to monitor in utero fetal heart rates still sits in the basement. Ben took this photograph with him after being evicted due to his landlord’s legal problems.  

c. 1990s-2000s, Berkeley, California

Plastic

Gift of Brian Duff

Brian Duff used these radios to listen to NPR and Love Line with Adam and Dr. Drew while attending graduate school at the University of California Berkeley. He used the green, waterproof radio while swimming in the university pool. It was difficult to pick up the station in the Berkeley hills, so he often stood in the shallow end, adjusting the knobs in search of a signal, before resuming his laps. 

c. 1970s, Providence, Rhode Island

Ceramic, paint

Gift of JoAnn Conklin

JoAnn’s father received this ceramic jewelry holder as a joke gift from his friend. He and his family commented on how hideous it was, but it sat on his dresser for 25 years, holding his watches until he died, and after that. JoAnn inherited the Men’s Ceramic Jewelry Holder in Form of a Bum, along with her father’s belongings, fifteen years ago.

n.d., Goosewing Beach, Rhode Island,

and Horseneck Beach, Massachusetts

Shell

Gift of Susan Smulyan

Susan Smulyan collected these shells during one of the dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of long or short walks on the beach she has taken during her time as a Providence, Rhode Island resident. Sometimes she discards the shells she’s collected after a seaside walk, but sometimes she saves them. 

c. 1970s, Providence, Rhode Island

Plastic, metal

Gift of David Brazil

David Brazil found these pieces of costume jewelry at his work site, Building 91 in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island. He works in a woodshop in the building, formerly occupied by A&M Jewelry company, which now manufactures most of its jewelry in China. The building is being gutted for renovation to apartments. David Brazil hopes to secure the commission to craft all of the building’s new windows. 

c. 2014, Washington, D.C.

Feather, glass, cork

Gift of Zachary Harmon

Zachary Harmon purchased these from the National Archives gift shop in Washington D.C. to gift to a family member in Los Angeles, who was working on a relevant school project. Shortly after obtaining the objects, he packed up all of his belongings in his Buick and moved to Providence, Rhode Island. The quill and inkwell remained packed and forgotten. Seven months later, he again packed up his belongings and moved to Vermont, having never mailed the gift. He cautions others to act before missing out on any opportunity, or suggests being better organized as you move across the country.  

c. 2000s, Dominican Republic

Metal

Gift of Cesarina Zabala

Cesarina Zabala acquired these coins on a trip to the Domincan Republic in the early 2000s. They have since discontinued manufacturing coins, circulating only paper currency. Cesarina Zabala was born in the Dominican Republic and lived there until she moved to the United States with her family when she was ten-years-old. As a child, she would purchase candy with coins similar to these. She only returns to the country once every five or ten years, and finds it odd now to exchange only paper money for goods. 

c. 2018, Questa, New Mexico

Squash seeds, cherry pits

Gift of Claire Cote

These seeds came from a volunteer squash that popped up in Claire’s garden—delicious, and with a storied lineage. This variety of squash started from seeds acquired through a connection in Arizona. Claire and her husband (fiancé at the time) took the resulting squash to her aunt’s and uncle’s house, cooking it up as a thank you for their hospitality. They loved the squash. They savored it. They raved about it. In fact it became so legendary that the aunt embroidered an image of this fruit on a quilt for Claire’s wedding—a symbol of beauty, pleasure, family. The aunt and uncle then shared the seeds with cousins who lived in Santa Fe. Later, Claire inherited plants from these cousins, and when they bore fruit later that summer Claire recognized them as kin of the original, beloved squash plant. This variety continues to grow in Claire’s garden, and these particular seeds came from a volunteer plant, which means they are likely stronger for having chosen their place.

Claire’s daughter Amber added the cherry pits to this satchel because she wanted to.

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c. 2011, Beverly, Massachusetts

Clay

Gift of Ellen Damsky

Ellen Damsky went through a phase in which she experimented with clay. It was at this time she sculpted this piece and fired it in her home fireplace. She later realized she’d subconsciously modeled it after her then-boyfriend’s unmistakable nose. The couple is no longer together, and Ellen isn’t sure how the nose broke. 

1957, Boston, Massachusetts

Silver

Gift of Zabeian Hutchins

Zabeian found this quarter in his change after panhandling outside of a Starbucks in Boston. He saved the coin, recognizing it was made of silver, and worth at least $2.00. He kept it in his pocket for two years. 

1999, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Paint, paper

Gift of Ruth Mordecai

Ruth painted this at sunrise in 1999. She previously worked as a studio artist in Boston, sculpting in clay (grey or terra cotta), welding (black), and occasionally drawing or painting (black or graphite, with a hint of color). She left Boston in 1998 to begin a new life with her now husband in Gloucester. She began going out at 5am to the salt marsh near Wingaersheek Beach, where she set up her easel and, using a big glass palette and rubber gloves, painted with her hands as the sun came up.  

c. 1200-1600, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Stone

Gift of John Ratti

John found these arrowheads in Seine Field, a conserved habitat and heritage area. He spotted the field on one of Champlain’s maps of Gloucester Harbor, and suspected it would be a place rich with Native American Artifacts. Using the map, he located the field and began hunting for arrowheads. He came to an area where the ground felt hollow and spotted a space surrounded by large stones, which looked like remnants of a fire pit. Here he found two arrowheads. Perhaps at one time Native Americans had used them to hunt squirrels or rabbits. John took the arrowheads home and cleaned them by running them through the dishwasher on a light wash cycle with a mild dish detergent. 

1926-1976, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Silver, nickel, copper

Gift of Steve Archer

Steve collects coins. 

Gift of Annie Horsley-Sibley

This ball point pen came from the English Bookshop on Rocky Neck Avenue. Peggy ran the bookshop out of her home while her husband fished for cod out at sea. The couple met in Normandy during WWII—Peggy an English spy and Bill a U.S. soldier. They married soon after the war, and Peggy moved to Gloucester. Homesick, she began importing English books to connect to her home country. Their house soon filled up with first edition Tolkeins, English toys and puzzles, and other foreign books, and she opened up a shop, selling books out of their home while Bill worked on his boat across the street or fished off the Gloucester coast.  The two loved each other, though led separate lives. Peggy stayed up until 3am each night playing the piano, and went to bed just as Bill awoke to go out fishing. In 2015 their daughter, Annie, found this pen in the “catacombs”, the section of her childhood home formerly occupied by her mother’s bookshop.

c. 1950s, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Cotton line, bronze

Gift of George Sibley

This eye splice and thimble come from the boat Bill Sibley made for his wife Peggy in the 1950s. In 2015 their son, George, found it in his yard, where Bill built boats throughout his lifetime. 

2018, Taos, New Mexico

Metal, paint

Gift of Ria Burnett

At the end of a dry winter, Ria realized that water in the storage tank on her roof, where she collects rain for her garden, had frozen. She expected it to be empty after the season of drought, and had never bothered to open the rain tank to allow melted snowfall to run straight to the garden. Now, in late February, she noticed the tank was full, frozen, and deforming. It was in danger of breaking open and called for emergency action; she needed to divert the flow from the roof directly to the ground. On an icy day she climbed a shaky ladder up to her roof, with a reciprocating saw in hand. Afraid of falling, she moved the vibrating saw back and forth across the gutter pipe until she was able to maneuver a diversion from tank to ground. The sharp, uneven edges of this cut gutter pipe illustrate the precarity of the situation. Then, as can happen in Taos, a week later the whole thing thawed.

TAO03

Pitcher

c. 1950s, Berkeley, California

Porcelein

Gift of Diane de Fremery

When Diane was a young girl her grandmother gave her this pitcher. As children, Diane and her siblings would stay overnight with their grandmother in Berkeley, California. She would often make lamb chops and serve tea with milk out of this pitcher. Diane and her siblings would get to select which tea cup to drink out of, and were allowed to put sugar cubes in their tea. They even had permission to jump on the bed. At some point, Diane’s grandmother gave her this pitcher as a Christmas or birthday gift. She was always gifting household objects to them, and Diane never understood why until many years later, now, she feels this impulse herself—the desire to pass along the precious things in your life to the ones you love.

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