Gallery Guide | The Melancholy Museum
Using over 700 items from the Stanford Family Collections, artist Mark Dion’s exhibition "The Melancholy Museum" explores how Leland Stanford Jr.’s death at age 15 led to the creation of a museum, university, and—by extension—the entire Silicon Valley.
Using over 700 items from the Stanford Family Collections, artist Mark Dion’s exhibition "The Melancholy Museum" explores how Leland Stanford Jr.’s death at age 15 led to the creation of a museum, university, and—by extension—the entire Silicon Valley.
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Credits and Acknowledgments<br />
Mark Dion’s project <strong>The</strong> <strong>Melancholy</strong> <strong>Museum</strong>: Love, Death, and Mourning at Stanford<br />
is supported by the Diekman Family Contemporary Commissions Program. <strong>The</strong><br />
artist worked with students from Susan Dackerman and Paula Findlen’s winter<br />
2019 course, which explored the history of the Stanford family collection. Anna<br />
Toledano and Kate Holohan assisted in the course design and artifact selection.<br />
We are grateful to the lenders to the exhibition: the Stanford Archaeology<br />
Center, Stanford Special Collections, the Oakland <strong>Museum</strong> of California, and the<br />
California Academy of Sciences. We also are indebted to our Stanford colleagues<br />
Julie Cain, Daniel Hartwig, Christina J. Hodge, Laura Jones, Maggie Kimball,<br />
Megan Rhodes Victor, and Emma Vossbrink. Thank you to Marc Bauer and his<br />
team from Made for the <strong>Museum</strong> Co. for building and installing the casework.<br />
Many thanks to our editor Lindsey Westbrook for her diligent edits and Benjamin<br />
Shaykin for designing this guide. Finally, we are grateful to the Cantor Arts Center<br />
team for their work on the project: Aleesa Pitchamarn Alexander, Kenneth Becker,<br />
Martins Bluzma, Peg Brady, Katherine Clifford, Catherine Coueignoux, Shanna<br />
Dickson, Camille DuPlantier, Jeffrey Fairbairn, Julie Kamiyama, Dolores Kincaid,<br />
Albert Lewis, Brooks Manbeck, Angela McGrew, Ashley McGrew, Daniel Meltsner,<br />
Stefanie Midlock, Clarissa Morales, and Tiffany Sakato. <strong>The</strong> contributions of the<br />
summer 2019 interns were likewise key: Kevin Chappelle, Cole Griffiths, and<br />
Ekalan Hou. Curatorial assistant Liv Porte expertly guided the installation and<br />
publication to completion.<br />
Mark Dion would like to thank Tanya Bonakdar <strong>Gallery</strong> for their ongoing support.<br />
© 2019, Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University<br />
All rights reserved. No part of<br />
the contents of this book may be<br />
published without the written<br />
permission of the Iris & B. Gerald<br />
Cantor Center for the Visual Arts<br />
at Stanford University, 328 Lomita<br />
Drive, Stanford, CA 94305.<br />
Book design: Benjamin Shaykin<br />
Copy editor: Lindsey Westbrook<br />
Typeset in Lydia, Robinson, Atlas<br />
Grotesk, and GT Alpina Typewriter<br />
Printed by Oscar Printing Company<br />
First edition 2019<br />
2,000 copies printed<br />
opposite: I. W. (Isaiah West) Taber (1830–1912), Leland Stanford Jr.’s<br />
Toys and <strong>Museum</strong> Objects, n.d. Stanford University Archives<br />
inside flap: Mark Dion (b. 1961), A preliminary sketch of a mourning<br />
cabinet, influenced by the Victorian era for the exhibition <strong>The</strong> <strong>Melancholy</strong><br />
<strong>Museum</strong>: Love, Death, and Mourning at Stanford, 2018. Courtesy of the artist<br />
back cover: Stuffed Owl in Frame, before 1882. Cantor Arts Center<br />
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