The front door keys, the clothes peg, the waveboard: it’s highly probable they will have been forgotten in 100 years. That’s why Arnhem’s Open Air Museum has asked people to nominate the most popular objects from 2012 to be kept for posterity.
The museum has always collected everyday items, so ordinary that we normally fail to keep a record of them. Clogs from the time when everyone in the Netherlands wore them. A box bed was already in the museum when people were still sleeping in the things.
To mark its 100th anniversary, the Open Air Museum has asked people to come up with the most popular objects from 2012. These will win places in its permanent collection. The top ten objects have been announced – and the big winner… the keys to the front door.
In a couple of years, they are likely to become redundant. We will have traded our key rings in for electronic passes or will be using iris scans to let ourselves in.
This is a skateboard with two moving parts. Dutch children have been zigzagging down the street on the things since they became all the rage in the summer of 2011. If experience is anything to go by, the rage won’t last.
On high days and holidays, Dutch families gather round the table and their ‘gourmet sets’ – electric hot plates complete with mini-pans. Everyone fries their own fish, meat and vegetables in their own personal little pan - a hit with the kids. If you don’t have one, borrow one from the neighbours.
It’s better for the environment - and on the pocket – than the old-fashioned filament bulbs which are slowly disappearing from the shops. But the bulky folded tubes are next to go; they are being pushed out by high-efficiency LEDs which produce as much light, and even less warmth than the energy-savers.
The design – for hanging up washing on a line - has been around for over a century. It’s also used for closing up half-empty packets of crisps, making a hut out of table cloths for the kids and lots of other things. The electric dryer is putting the clothes peg out of business.
A symbol of the changing language and the disappearance of the printed book. Many words in the guide will be completely unknown a century from now.
Digital photos are viewed on laptops, smartphones or via digital albums. Paper photos in old photo albums have been relegated to the back of the bookcase.
Douwe Egberts is a Dutch coffee company which was founded in 1753. The brand has survived despite centuries of competition. The stamps on the packet can be saved to claim silver-plated teaspoons or filter coffee machines.
The Dutch have taken to the British singer. She’s so popular that she’s made it into the Dutch Open Air Museum.
Almost ousted from the car by GPS navigation systems. Its demise also ends more than a century of flaming rows between car drivers and their map-reading companions about which turning to take.
(mw/imm/rk)
Email this Article
Printer-friendly version
Don't forget the Yellow Pages, the "church key" beer can opener, typewriter, "whiteout" and typewriter ribbon, fountain pen, cassette tape, the necktie, and good manners.
Post new comment
Please be reminded all comments must be in English, short and to the point - guideline 250 words. Abusive and inappropriate comments will be removed.