Collect Past

The Bomber’s View Of The Past

Benjamin Thomas White | History Workshop | 11th September 2025

Aerial archaeology is impossible to separate from its military and colonial heritage. One of its earliest practitioners, Antoine Poidebard, was a Jesuit priest and a French intelligence officer as well as an archaeologist. His photographs were instrumental in uncovering hitherto-unknown Roman remains in Syria, but they also informed the management of France's imperial frontier in Syria after WWI (1,500 words)

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Why Do We Collect Things?

Elsie Morales | Cazadora | 28th August 2025

Over 100,000 years ago in the Kalahari, people were collecting crystals. Today, people collect everything from labubus to jigsaw pieces. Artists are especially prone to the habit: Joan Didion collected sea shells, Vladimir Nabokov collected butterflies, Joseph Cornell collected everything. Why? Many reasons, including childhood trauma, unquenchable curiosity, and the desire to express identity (2,800 words)