Paper (Clip) Confetti for the New Year - 21 Collections at the Central Library

A recent visit to the downtown Central Library included seeing 21 Collections:  Every Object Has a Story, one of the library's free exhibitions, on view in the Getty Gallery until Sunday, January 27, 2019. 

"21 Collections" has inspired this blogger to introduce one of her own, unintended collections.

21 Collections:  Every Object Has a Story

As the webpage conveys, the exhibit examines how these private collections contribute "in telling our stories and those of our communities and Los Angeles at large."

Favorites include actor Tom Hanks' typewriters, Karen Collins' miniatures depicting African American history, Barry Harrison's photographs of men in rows, and Darlene Lacey's candy wrappers.

Paper Clips from the Seaver Center for Western History Research

The following fascinating fasteners were collected in the course of processing archival papers and photographs in the last eleven years or so at the Seaver Center - collections often created by individuals and donated to the Natural History Museum, which is the home for the Seaver Center.

The "processing" work usually involves transferring items into acid-free folders and boxes, following the removal of metal paper clips and other fasteners that may be rusted or have the capability to transfer rust onto the papers in need of preservation.

These clips were extracted from materials probably compiled between the 1890s to mid 1950s.

To learn more about the history of paper clips, visit the Early Office Museum.