Museum of
Ordinary ThingsA little attention changes everything.
Old handwritten letters and envelopes gathered together.
The collectionExhibit No. 005

In somebody’s handwriting

No particular news.

A small bundle of letters. A very familiar hand.

The story behind the object
The storysincere

The letters always began the same way: not much to report. Then came three pages about the garden, a neighbour’s dog, something good she had made for lunch.

I used to read them quickly, looking for the news. Now those are the parts I return to. The small weather of an ordinary week. The way she crossed out a word rather than starting again. The little arrow when she remembered something after signing her name.

There is no great revelation in this bundle. Just the lovely, unnecessary effort of telling someone about your day.

Not much to report. Everything to keep.

A fictional story, written for this sample exhibit.

What ordinary thing would you keep?

Make an exhibit of your own

Fictional sample exhibit · Back to the collection

Photograph by Unsplash ↗

A closer look · The full photograph

Old handwritten letters and envelopes gathered together.

An ordinary thing, given extraordinary attention.

The Museum of Ordinary Things

Nothing ordinary
about what we keep.

A ticket. A chipped cup. A watch that no longer works. Some objects matter for reasons no label can quite explain. This is a place to try.

This early exhibit explores how a photograph and a few words can give an everyday thing extraordinary attention.

Create an exhibit with your own photograph and words. Save it privately, then choose when to publish it. The two stories in our sample exhibit are fictional.