Portable Tombs of Memory: The Ringelblum Archive as a Collection of Objects is a three-part lecture series by Bożena Shallcross. It explores the Ringelblum Archive as a collection of material objects that informs our perception of the “bare everyday” during the Jewish genocide, the question of the material durability and fragility of objects, and the methods of preserving their materiality.

November 2, 9, and 16 at 6 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

$15 General | $12 Seniors | Free for people with a college or university affiliation or museum ID, people with disabilities and caregivers, and BGC members

The Hidden Treasure
Thursday, November 2 at 6 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Shallcross discusses the discovery of the archives in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto and briefly narrates the concept of the Oneg Shabbat as an archival project according to which every object taken “from within” the extreme conditions of the Ghetto under siege has a historical significance. She analyzes how these material paper objects, hidden inside rusty and ugly containers, revealed an enormous testimonial value, and she compares this paradox to the ancient Greek habit of keeping precious objects (agalmata) in unassuming containers.

Rust and Mold
Thursday, November 9 at 6 pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

At this event, Shallcross analyzes the (mal)function of the containers she discussed in the first lecture in the series, their material state and the enormous conservation challenges that followed the Ringelblum Archive’s discovery. The restoration of its contents is presented as an ongoing project that defies prevailing narratives of wartime material precarity and total loss.

Candy Wrappers
Thursday, November 16 at 6pm
38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

In the final lecture in this series, Shallcross explores the idea of the everyday that, by its common logic, is ordinary, but in the wartime ghetto was turned upside down, inasmuch as daily survival had become extraordinary. In this context, Shallcross explores how smuggled food and ephemeral objects such as ration tickets or candy wrappers foreground the material texture of survival.