James Usher
I have always been the type of person to ‘have collections’ or as I always saw it, ‘being obsessive’. I never considered it as a collection though. I always just saw it as me being obsessive. I didn’t, and still don’t think anyone else would be interested in what I have. Whereas James Ward Usher bequeathed his collections to the City of Lincoln.
Walking around it all just seemed very strange to me. Like I was looking into that part of someones mind that hides obsessions and all our secrets. Why did he collect pocket watches? What did it personally mean to him? What did the brooches, cuff links, cutlery mean? He spent his whole life collecting things. Going all around the world to find items to fulfill his collections.
Does this mean he was just obsessed with completing his collections? Did he HAVE to complete them? Did he feel an undenying urge to collect? Did it drive him crazy to think of all his incomplete collections?
I didn’t really see the usher as a museum or a collection, I saw it as an insight into the mind of James Ward Usher himself.
I have collected snow globes, show tickets, books, DVD’s, things with moustaches on. But I have never felt the need to fulfill one of my collections. I don’t collect until it’s complete I just collect memories and what I love and enjoy. I couldn’t spend my life searching for these items and have it as what my life consists of.
I think that collections can be harmless, or can go full out obsessive. On the Usher website they state he “never married and devoted his life to collecting, travelling far in search of particular items to enhance his collection.”. His life and passion was collecting. He got into it right out of school and never did anything else. He also got famous through his obsessions and decorations with the Lincolnshire Imp.
His collections were beautiful and amazing. I no doubt think his life’s work is amazing, and some of them really caught my eye and interested me. Such as the picture above of Mark Woods ‘Never Leave Home Without It’, and all the grandfather clocks were fascinating.
In some light, Usher could be seen as a hoarder. The space felt cramped and crowded. It really made me feel weird. I felt like I could hit or knock anything at any point, but I also felt weird about it because it reminded me of hoarders. Having so much stuff that they have specific roots to follow to get to any part of their house. As Gail Steketee comments “a major feature of hoarding is the large amount of disorganized clutter that creates chaos in the home. Rooms can no longer be used as they were intended, moving through the home is challenging, exits are blocked, and life inside the home becomes difficult.” (2013). This is exactly how I felt within his house. It was no longer a home in my eyes, and I believe they didn’t have to move much around to make it ‘The Usher’ either.
Work Cited
The History Of the Usher Gallery. Available from: <http://www.thecollectionmuseum.com/?/about-us/history-of-the-usher-gallery> [Accessed 9th February 2014].
Steketee, G. Diagnosing Hoarding. Available from: <http://www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding/diagnosing.aspx> [Accessed 9th February 2014].