Writing Journal
Childhood Collections
When I was a child I loved dinosaurs even as a little girl. I taught myself all of the dinosaur names like stegosaurus, brontosaurus, brachiosaurus, tyrannosaurus rex, and triceratops. When I would wake up in the morning before school my mom would put a show on for my sisters and I, and any chance I would get to watch television I always wanted to watch shows or documentaries or movies about dinosaurs. Shows like Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, the movie Dinosaur, and two of my favorites still The Land Before Time and We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story. I’m not sure why I had such an obsession with dinosaurs but when I was a kid I always wanted dinosaur toys. I had a wide collection of them, dinosaurs littered my room and one time my grandma even got me a big triceratops that sat in my room. I could pretend like I was riding it or pretend to feed it the fake leaves it came with. Anything that had to do with dinosaurs excited me because I knew so much about them and as a kid it felt so good to be smart about something even if it was just dinosaurs. I had tons of dinosaur books as well although I don’t remember the names of them. Even sticker books and one time after my parents had said goodnight I took a bunch of stickers from a book and stuck them to the wall and on my bed frame. I’m not sure why I did it except maybe I just loved dinosaurs that much that I wanted to put my “cool” dinosaur stickers there so I could look at them when I was bored or so my parents would think “that’s so cool.” Dinosaurs were probably my coolest childhood collection because it was more than just a collection, it was something I took pride in knowing so much about.
Bizarre Collections
John Reznikoff has a strange collection of human hair but not just anyone’s hair; it’s famous, historic or past President’s hair. People like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Beethoven, John F. Kennedy, Napoleon Bonaparte, Elvis Presely, and even John Wilkes Booth. According to the Guinness Book of World Records he owns the largest collection of presidential hair. His hair collection goes beyond just an obsession or collection, his collection has been used to disprove and prove claims. Reznikoff has also helped authenticate hair samples for auction houses and police departments by also analyzing the documents that come along with the follicles. He even helped to prove the authenticity of a lock of hair found in a 1793 leather-bound almanac that sat on a shelf at Union College Library in upstate Schenectady. The book belonged to Philip J Schuyler,a wealthy New York Senator, and the hair belong to former president George Washington. Also Reznikoff hardly sells part of his collection unless he deems the person to take the hobby as seriously as he does like Jared Cohen. Cohen, a Google executive, who purchased 24 hairs from John Tyler, the tenth president of the United States. Reznikoff has gained so much fame he even was the inspiration for a 2009 Law and Order character that had to do with a presidential paternity case.
I honestly find John Reznikoff’s collection fascinating because I think it goes so much beyond just a “bizarre collection”. It seems like he’s really put in a lot of effort to put together this collection and also the amount of knowledge he has about his collection. He’s received so much fame and recognition for his knowledge and ability to prove and disprove claims and also to authenticate hair strands.
Fetish Objects
Crystals are the first thing I could think of when I hear the definition of fetish objects. I find them interesting, all the different crystals, meanings, and the different things they can “help” with. There are tons of different crystals like agates, amazonite, amethyst, calcite, citrine, fluorite, garnet, howlite, jasper, opal and so many more. All of them are so beautiful and have so many things they are supposed to help with like to alleviate stress, anxiety, depression, anger, sadness. It’s also supposed to improve intuition, amplify and focus energy, provide protection, and also aid in meditation and spiritual growth. Crystals are a spiritual fetish, like many people who have a “crystal fetish” have it because they are spiritually connected to them and because they have a spiritual meaning to them. Crystals aren’t necessarily a big part of a specific religion, but they are a part of religions like Wicca, Hinduism, Buddhism and even Christianity. In Wicca they are used to connect with the divine power and higher selves. More specifically some of the earliest mentions of crystals in history come from the Celts and Druids. They believed that each crystal had its own unique energy and vibration. In Hinduism they are believed to be a source of energy and power and are essential in ceremonies. In Buddhism they symbolize purity and enlightenment, and in Christianity they are mentioned in the Bible. There’s more on the use of crystals in each of these religions in this article. There’s many different thoughts and opinions surrounding crystals, like some believe that crystals hold no power or strength to them like my mom who refers to them as “magic rocks” and some believe in the strength and power of them. Personally, though I find them quite interesting and even have a few myself, I don’t do any rituals or ceremonies with them though.
Mexican Fire Opal (top) and Grape Agate (bottom)
Kitsch Objects
The Hula Girl has been around for over a hundred years and originated in Hawaii. Sometimes her arms will be in different poses but her hips stay the same in the fact they will wiggle depending on how much motion there is in the car. It originally started as a gift between friends in the 1920s. Then in the 1950s she moved from just being a knick knack to being a dashboard ornament. U.S. soldiers stationed in Hawaii during World War II brought back dashboard hula girls for everyone back to the U.S. mainland. Originally she was made out of bisque or clay and hand painted but by the 1950s she was made from plastic and mass-produced and had a spring in her hips so she would wiggle. Today she can be found at dollar stores and auto stores as well.
Now let’s talk about the stereotype that this and media like movies and tv shows provides for hula dancers. Because the dashboard hula girl wears a coconut bra and a grass skirt which isn’t authentic to actual hula dancers. There’s also a long history behind hula dancing that has to do with the historical and cultural background of each hula dance. Each individual hula that is taught to hula dancers tells a story about ancient Hawaiian culture. There are also chants that are included during, before, or after hula dances that tell stories. The dashboard hula girl has become the perceived identity of Hawaiian women and Hawaiian identity and has genderdized the state due to the common exploitation of it in tourism.
My thoughts on this is that it is sad that such a small thing has placed this burden onto native Hawaiians. Reading about and learning hula dancers and the stereotype that has been placed on native Hawaiians has opened my eyes to the fact that we need to be more aware of the impact that even small kitsch objects may have on the identity of others. Through my research I’ve also built more respect and appreciation for Hawaiian culture even if my research was minimal.
Cultural Icons
We are surrounded by cultural icons everyday, whether it be an object/artifact or a person. Some cultural icons include Elivs Presely, Lebron James, lunchables, the Mona Lisa, and more. The cultural icon I will be focusing on today is tea. Tea is a British cultural icon, originally an upper-class drink in Europe but then eventually made its way to all classes. It was a status symbol for the super-rich of Regency England. In many aristocratic family portraits they were shown drinking tea as well as having other items surrounding them that showed off their wealth.
The Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza (image below) started the process of making tea a British cultural icon when she married into the royal family in 1662. Tea didn’t grow in England so this made it more expensive and a luxury for the English, that being said it didn’t make its way to all social classes until the end of the 18th century. When Chinese imports grew during the 18th century tea became a common drink among all social classes.
Many considered the social tea table to be like the fireside of England. There were many individual and national benefits to tea. Individual benefits being it soothed nerves, settled stomachs and contributed to the “sobriety of a nation.” Some of the national benefits were it could call together different national powers and bring out intellectual powers. Tea was typically found in female domestic circles. Overtime tea helped to shape social traditions, support the rise of the British empire and even contributed to the momentum of the Industrial Revolution. This was because tea became a source of anxiety for the British because they didn’t like having to rely on China for their supply of tea. The British soon discovered a source of tea in Assam, India in 1823, this eased their anxiety as India was a part of the British empire.
Fashion and Identity
The hippie trend started around the 1960s in British English and during or around 2964 in the United States and then made its way to other countries around the world. They were a part of the countercultural movement that rejected the “mores” of American life. Although some believe the hippy movement began as part of protest against the United States involvement in the Vietnam War which began in the 50s, but hippies were not directly engaged in politics. Their activist counterparts were known as “Yippies” which stood for Youth International Party.
Hippies had a very distinctive style, often having long hair and dressed in casual unconventional clothes that were often in “psychedelic colors”. Men often grew beards and women wore long-flowy “granny dresses”. Both men and women wore sandals, beads, and rimless granny glasses. They would also use holistic medicine, eat a vegetarian style diet, and experiment with communal living because they felt alienated from middle class society which they saw as marginalized by materialism and repression. They would avoid regular jobs and careers. Hippies advocated against violence and advocated for love and their popular phrase was “Make love, not war.” Because of this outlook they were known as “flower children.”
Hippies promoted openness and tolerance as opposed to repression and regimentation. They sought spiritual guidance from Buddhism, Hinduism and other eastern European religions. Astrology was a popular amongst hippies, so were hallucinogenic drugs like marijuana and LSD. They justified the use of recreational drugs as a way to expand consciousness.
Critics of the hippy counterculture pointed out how they had the luxury to “check out” of society in a way and their incongruence during the Civil Rights movement. Hippies made African-Americans uncomfortable. Poor-young blacks had to fight to join the mainstream that the hippies had rejected. Hippies saw that consumer consumption failed to make their parents happy but young blacks saw consumer goods as a sign of success and importance.
Female Inventor
Everyone loves ice cream no matter what the flavor is. There have been so many flavors made for everyone to enjoy. Back in the day when ice cream was first invented ice cream was a luxury during the 19th century for those that had access to ice houses or a personal chef. Nancy Maria Donaldson Johnson changed this for everyone though with her invention and patent for the first hand-cranked ice cream freezer. Johnson’s invention was known as the “Artificial Freezer” and was officially patented in September of 1843.
She made ice cream accessible to everyone because it introduced an efficient, reproducible method to achieve smoother, yummier ice cream. It was a manual device with an outer wooden pail that contained crushed ice and an inner tin containing the ice cream mixed to be frozen. The lid was bolted on and there was a device inserted through the lid with a handle that turned to freeze the lid. The device inside was called a dasher. By turning the handle/crank the paddles inside would rotate and spin, churning the mixture while also cooling it at the same time.
The impact went farther than just allowing more people to enjoy ice cream, it allowed families to create their own ice cream and experiment with flavors and ingredients. Johnson’s invention resonated all through the world and beyond, it set the stage for innovations and the ice cream industry’s expansion.
Sadly though Nancy sold the invention off cheaply and it did become the standard mechanism for many years and someone made a fortune out of the invention. Although Johnson sold her invention it still holds a special value because she was the original inventor of it. She invented something that brought a sweet treat to everyone and their families to enjoy and solved a bigger problem at hand.
Objects/Materials of Desire
Objects and materials of desire are something that people want to have, that they crave or yearn for. We see them a lot in tv shows and movies like; Harry Potter, Indianna Jones, and even in stories like Romeo and Juliet. Besides popular media objects of desire and the destruction that comes along with obtaining them is also present in the real world. Money is one of the most prevalent objects of desire in our world today and even before. The desire for money can and has destroyed things on many different levels. On a smaller scale the desire for money has the power to destroy relationships or on a bigger scale it has the potential to destroy ecosystems, relationships between countries, and more.
So how exactly does the desire for money destroy these you might ask, it’s simple when the desire outweighs the importance of these other things in life it can destroy them. The desire for money can destroy ecosystems by the destruction of forests like the Amazon Rainforest or drilling for oil. These things are done so that whoever is running the operations can get richer, meaning they get more money. They also cause harm to the animals that live in either the rainforest or the oceans because they either lose their habitats, food sources, or are killed. The desire for money can also destroy relationships because we place a higher importance on money by either working more and ignoring those relationships or even if someone has a gambling problem and if they lose a lot trying to gain more and drive family members, friends or partners away. These may sound like a silly example of how the desire for money causes destruction but seven in ten relationships report that money causes tensions.
I understand money is an important thing in our world today because it is apart of everything we do, whether it’s travel, food, housing, transportation, etc. but it’s important we don’t let money destroy our humanity or relationships so that the desire for money doesn’t consume us.
Religious or Sacred Artifacts
The Holy Right is the mummified fist of the Saint King Stephen and is located at the Basilica of St.Stephen in Budapest, Hungary. The significance of St.Stephen’s hand is that his coronation marked the entry of Hungary into European Christian nations. His coronation took place on Christmas day in the year 1000, after defeating his cousin Koppány and Stephen was the first king of Hungary to receive a crown from Pope Sylvester II. St.Stephen treated the church as the “principal pillar” of his authority. He found bishoprics and abbeys and made building of churches mandatory. He died in 1038 and became Hungary’s patron saint.
On August 20th, 1083 St.Stephen’s stone grave was canonized and as a part of the saint-ing process his corpse was exhumed and his right arm was found to be as fresh as the day he was buried in 1038. They then cut his arm off to be preserved and venerated. After this the arm went through a number of different owners, during the Turkish occupation it ended up in current day Dubrovnik, Croatia and was guarded by Dominican friars. The friars cut the hand from the arm, sending the arm to Lemburg and the hand to Vienna. Then in 1771, the Austro-Hungarian empire took the hand and placed it in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna before it was returned to Hungary. The Holy Right’s journey doesn’t end there though because during WWII it was taken back to Austria for safekeeping by the archbishop of Salzburg. Then on August 20th, 1945 the priest of the American army returned the hand to the Hungarians.
Every year on August 20th Hungary takes the hand out for a walk/parade on Saint Stephen’s day, a day dedicated to the founding of the Hungarian nation.
Objects of the Occult
Occult is defined as supernatural, mystical, magical beliefs, or practices. Witch bottles are one of the lesser known occult objects. It was a form of counter magic, people would use it as a defense tool to attract the witch and trap her along with her evil energy. Witch bottles were often packed with small objects varying from bent copper alloy pins, nails, nail clippings, hair thorns, other sharp objects, and sometimes even urine. The actual bottle could range from a glass, ceramic, and some bottles had designs like human faces on them. Archaeologist Eamonn P. Kelly wrote about the bottles explaining that the urine was meant to lure the witch into the bottle and the pins were used to trap the witch in it.
In the 16th to 18th centuries across the British Isles and eventually in the United States witch bottles were built into houses near the entrances like windows, doors, and fireplaces. The usage of witch bottles would often increase around times where there were political difficulties, bad crop season and also when people suffered from urinary problems or bladder stones. All of these issues were reflected into the witch bottles by the items they contained. They were also all assumed to be caused by witches.
The bottles originated in the East Anglia region of England during the Middle Ages before making their way to the United States by colonial immigrants. Although the practice of making witch bottles isn’t as common anymore it is still somewhat prevalent in the 20th century. Because this was such a common practice in the late middle ages the Museum of London Archaeology and the University of Hertfordshire launched a three-year project known as the “Bottles concealed and revealed” in order to uncover more of these witch bottles. There is still a lot of unknown information about these bottles which is why they want to discover more so there is a deeper understanding how these bottles spread and transmit ideas around medicine and beliefs.
