Anti-Foreclosure Campaign OWS Becomes History
Photo by Photostock
The anti-foreclosure campaign of Occupy Wall Street has become history not because the movement has stopped (it is spreading across the country with renewed vigour) but because of its leftover items have become collectibles for the archives.
Some well known institutions have already come to the decision that artifacts of the movement are worth preserving for history. Over six important organizations and museums (Smithsonian Institution and New York Historical Society among others) have been keenly collecting items that the OWS movement produced.
The personnel of these institutions have been sent to comb through the places the activists had occupied like Zucotti Park to hunt for posters, documents, buttons etc. The websites and the tweets have been digitally archived. Museums have started to approach individual members of the movement directly so as to get the posters and other like items.
An exhibition is being planned by the Museum of the City of New York to showcase items connected with Occupy next January. Ben Alexander of Queens College,New York (head of archives and special collections) said “Occupy is sexy. It sounds hip. A lot of people want to be associated with it”.
The members of the movement have also started to activate an archive group of its own. Hundreds of signs, fliers, posters, periodicals, buttons, banners and documents have been kept temporarily in a storage while they are hunting around for a place where they can keep these permanently.
Amy Roberts of Queens College, a graduate student studying library and information said, “We want to make sure we collect it from our perspective so that it can be represented as best as possible”. She played a lead role in setting up the archive group.
Institutions have approached Occupy either to borrow or to acquire materials related to their movement. Roberts said they are thinking of donating the full lot to Tamiment Library and to Robert F. Wagner Labour Archives of New York University. Tamiment did not make any comments. Tamiment is the oldest institution in the country for its collections relating to socialism, social protests and communism.
Most of the feverish collections were made during the early stages of the protests – it being a safeguard against history getting lost. The online history of the movement is also being stored – this being a distinctive feature.
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