Objects of Our Affection – Mount Holyoke College Art Museum

Intern Insights, Objects of Our Affection
Poetry with Mercury and Argus
Engagement Intern Darwin Michener-Rutledge ’24 looks at the painting “Landscape with Mercury and Argus” through the eyes of a writer and poet. She discovers a moment that connects with her own life and turns the experience of observing art into another form of art.
Intern Insights, Objects of Our Affection
For the Love of (Artists’) Books
Curatorial Intern Juliana Cordero ’18 is a book lover. Her affinity for books is so strong, in fact, that she hopes to pursue a career as a book conservator. Here, she shares her favorite books from a collection of nearly 70 artists’ books by women recently gifted to MHCAM by Marjorie (Jerry) Cohn ’60. Cohn, a long-time conservator and curator at the Fogg Museum, amassed this wondrous collection over 25 years. Feminist themes abound in these books, through comedy, tragedy, and the commonplace. Read on…Cordero’s picks are laugh-out-loud funny!
Objects of Our Affection
Skinner Weird II
Associate Curator of Visual and Material Culture Aaron Miller is back with another list of ten delightfully strange objects from the collection of the Joseph Allen Skinner Museum. This time, see if you can match his amusing descriptions with the objects. And don’t miss out on a visit to the Skinner Museum before it closes for the season!
Objects of Our Affection
A 19th-Century Turkmen Asmalyk
In this Objects of Our Affection post, Associate Curator of Education Kendra Weisbin weaves together the history of a beautiful 19th-century textile—a 2017 gift to MHCAM—and her own cultivation as a specialist and enthusiast of Islamic carpets.
Intern Insights, Objects of Our Affection
Small Wonder: A 16th-Century German Pomander
Curatorial Intern Madeline Ketley ’17 recently catalogued materials from the Fellows Collection of Silver and Snuff Bottles, a gift to MHCAM in 1986 from Josephine Purtscher Fellows (Class of 1924). In the newest installment of the blog series Objects of Our Affection, Ketley reveals the history and allure of a tiny silver pomander from this collection. Read on to discover the secrets contained in this delicate 16th-century object.
Objects of Our Affection
Skinner Weird
Last month, a blogger for OnlyInYourState.com deemed Mount Holyoke’s Joseph Allen Skinner Museum the number one weirdest place in Massachusetts. Aaron F. Miller, MHCAM’s Associate Curator of Visual and Material Culture, takes the opportunity to explore the top 10 weirdest objects in the Skinner Museum collection. A mummified wedding cake? A Teddy Roosevelt nutcracker? Read on to learn about these wondrous oddities!
Objects of Our Affection
Passenger Pigeon
In 2008, Boston-based photographer Rosamond Wolff Purcell made a series of images of natural history specimens at the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in California. In the newest installment of the mhcameo series Objects of Our Affection, Professor of English Elizabeth Young discusses one photograph from that series, Purcell’s beautiful, beguiling Passenger Pigeon. Young describes her recent immersion in the mysterious world of taxidermy, and recounts the fascinating history of the now-extinct passenger pigeon.
Objects of Our Affection
Emily Dickinson's White Dress, The Homestead, 1989
Mount Holyoke College President Lynn Pasquerella has provided the first post for the mhcameo column Objects of Our Affection, a series of personal reflections about works of art in the MHCAM collection. Here, President Pasquerella meditates over a photograph by Jerome Liebling (American, 1924-2011) of poet and Mount Holyoke alumna Emily Dickinson’s ethereal white dress.

Blog Category: Objects of Our Affection