Museum of
Ordinary ThingsA little attention changes everything.
A gold-coloured pen resting on a light surface.
The collectionExhibit No. 023

An ordinary beginning

For important things.

A pen given before there was much to sign.

The story behind the object
The storysincere

It was a present when I started my first job. The box was lined, the pen had a reassuring weight, and the accompanying advice was to use it for important things.

I tried. It signed a contract and one particularly serious letter. Mostly it wrote reminders, birthday cards, and lists of things to buy on the way home.

The ink has been replaced many times. I think I have followed the advice fairly well.

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 Alexander Kaufmann / Unsplash ↗

A closer look · The full photograph

A gold-coloured pen resting on a light surface.

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.