an experiment in nostalgia, amateur librarianship, and mail art.
We here at the Mundaneum have a large personal library of vintage nonfiction books, magazines, advertisements, and informational pamphlets that are fun to look at and fascinating to read. We don’t want to hog them all to ourselves so we’ve started this research service, free of charge.
How it works is, you just tell us what subject you’re interested in, and we will scour the archives researching it. Once we’ve found some, um, relevant information we will send it to you. Please include your mailing address so that we can mail our findings to you. These mailings are part actual research, part art experiment, or whatever, and they're meant to be funny but they should also provide an interesting and useful look at American life in the 20th century.
The project is named after the massive 1910 archival project undertaken by Paul Otlet and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henri La Fontaine, with the aim of cataloging all the world’s information. (!) This masterpiece eventually became an archive of more than 12 million index cards and documents. Some people consider it a kind of conceptual forerunner of the internet.
You may also submit research requests via email to katie at thelalatheory . com.
We here at the Mundaneum have a large personal library of vintage nonfiction books, magazines, advertisements, and informational pamphlets that are fun to look at and fascinating to read. We don’t want to hog them all to ourselves so we’ve started this research service, free of charge.
How it works is, you just tell us what subject you’re interested in, and we will scour the archives researching it. Once we’ve found some, um, relevant information we will send it to you. Please include your mailing address so that we can mail our findings to you. These mailings are part actual research, part art experiment, or whatever, and they're meant to be funny but they should also provide an interesting and useful look at American life in the 20th century.
The project is named after the massive 1910 archival project undertaken by Paul Otlet and Nobel Peace Prize winner Henri La Fontaine, with the aim of cataloging all the world’s information. (!) This masterpiece eventually became an archive of more than 12 million index cards and documents. Some people consider it a kind of conceptual forerunner of the internet.
You may also submit research requests via email to katie at thelalatheory . com.
asks:
I would absolutely love to receive some material from the Mundaneum. How can I private message you my request and address?
Hello there! You can send me a message here with that information and it will be private. It only becomes public when I respond to anonymous (non-tumblr) users the way I am right now, which I won’t do when you write with your request. Otherwise please feel free to email me at katie at thelalatheory dot com. Thank you for your interest.
asks:
How did the Income Tax originate - how did they get that passed?
Hiya, thanks for your interest. Private message me your mailing address please?
