A furled beige umbrella is reverently displayed above the fireplace, among a vast array of other objects – this is Maude’s home, and Harold is transfixed.
Later in the book, the reader realises Maude has survived the Holocaust. Suddenly, Maude’s umbrella becomes more than something that kept her dry, it was her companion on protest marches and rallies when she began a new life in America. To her, that umbrella represents big issues: liberty, rights, justice.
These scenes bring me back to a core belief I have in the role of museums, not just to preserve objects, but to preserve their stories because they are linked to lives. Museums are homes to truths and fictions, successes and failures, joy and loss, life and death.
At a time when museums are striving to adapt and survive, what I hope remains key is the power of objects, their stories and our role in revealing their truths, fictions, lives, deaths. An umbrella is always more than just an umbrella.
Anooshka Rawden is the collections manager at the Royal Society of Antiquaries in London
Later in the book, the reader realises Maude has survived the Holocaust. Suddenly, Maude’s umbrella becomes more than something that kept her dry, it was her companion on protest marches and rallies when she began a new life in America. To her, that umbrella represents big issues: liberty, rights, justice.
These scenes bring me back to a core belief I have in the role of museums, not just to preserve objects, but to preserve their stories because they are linked to lives. Museums are homes to truths and fictions, successes and failures, joy and loss, life and death.
At a time when museums are striving to adapt and survive, what I hope remains key is the power of objects, their stories and our role in revealing their truths, fictions, lives, deaths. An umbrella is always more than just an umbrella.
Anooshka Rawden is the collections manager at the Royal Society of Antiquaries in London
