Although most of the history we are taught is made up of major events and important figures, most people of course are never famous or grand or noted in official accounts—we primarily live lives filled with everyday common events. Georg Daniel Flohr and his journal are interesting as an intersection of these two kinds of histories—he was a common man who found himself in extraordinary times, transplanted from day to day life to an active arena of a major world event.

In my studio practice, I have a long interest in archives, collections and museum practices as ways that we construct, remember and preserve history, and also in how this history is essentially constructed only from whatever fragmentary evidence survives. Flohr’s diary is one such fragment and it informs us significantly in our understanding of the experiences, places and events of the years he chronicled. For this project, I took the opportunity to create a portfolio that suggests an institutional collection.