"Collyer Curiosa: A Brief History of Hoarding" by Scott Herring

After deciding that my series and practice will follow hoarding and extreme collecting, I decided to read an extract from the book by Scott Herring titled "Collyer Curiosa: A Brief History of Hoarding". I feel that with background knowledge on the subject, I will be more understanding of people who collected large amounts of items, and will be able to connect with them.

The book begins by taking about Homer Collyer, whom the book focusses upon, and how he was found dead in his Fifth Avenue flat in Harlem, after being "crushed to death by fallen stacks of bundled newspapers, one of the many booby traps that he had rigged to ward of priers." (Herring, page 1, 2011). Their collection spanned across over one hundred tonnes of material including several grand pianos and thousands newspapers and posters. The house was deemed unsafe and demolished soon afterwards.

Herring comments on the fact that the Collyer brothers were able to define a category of people that existed - the hoarder. Back in 1947, when Homer died, hoarding was considered to be something of great wealth and standard, whereas now, the times have shifted, and hoarding is seen to be unnecessary and "crazy". After watching the Channel 4 programme, "Hoarder Next Door", I have gained an understanding of how hoarding is considered now, and what sort of people end up filling their homes from floor to ceiling with rubbish, and how this compares with the early 20th century, where having a large collection of items was considered to be attached to someone of great importance.



http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/criticism/v053/53.2.herring.html