Museum of
Ordinary ThingsA little attention changes everything.
A dark umbrella covered with raindrops.
The collectionExhibit No. 024

A borrowed kindness

You can bring it back later.

An umbrella lent without a return date.

The story behind the object
The storysincere

The rain began just as I was leaving. The person behind the counter reached into a cupboard and handed me this umbrella. Bring it back later, they said.

I did bring it back. They told me to keep it; somebody else had left another one. It seemed the cupboard was running its own small public service.

I leave this one by the door. If a visitor needs it, I tell them there is no hurry.

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 Sergio Sun / Unsplash ↗

A closer look · The full photograph

A dark umbrella covered with raindrops.

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.