At first I was drawn to the Library Company’s ephemera collection because I found the images on the trade cards and ink blotters cute or funny. When I held the cards in my hand though, I realized that they possessed similar qualities to the discarded material that I pick up in the streets on my walk to school everyday. These objects could easily have been similarly discarded and forgotten. Considering the word ephemera’s connection to temporality, it amazed me to think that these paper objects have been preserved for over a century. I couldn’t help but wonder why. What set of circumstances imbued these objects with the preciousness that made them archive-worthy?

In an attempt to highlight elements of chance in archive-making and further question the hierarchy of the institution, I decided to make an alternative visual archive of discarded objects. This collection can be considered an archive of present day Philadelphia for the future. This project is a space to contemplate what constitutes value and who decides what is worth remembering.