Decay

Abstract

This essay, which accompanied the 2017 exhibition The Philosophy Chamber at the Harvard Art Museums, examines the role of decay in the early history of Harvard’s collections. Through case studies ranging from taxidermied birds to plaster casts of the Laocoön, it shows how a pragmatic tolerance for loss within the day-to-day activities of a teaching collection coexisted in increasing tension with new concerns for conservation informed by the historical consciousness of the Early Republic. The essay also considers how the modern museum culture’s drive to conserve objects at all costs risks losing what once made collections vital.