Well, if you adopt the "only historically
significant" things are to
be collected mantra, you never would have had something like the Henry
Ford Museum in Michigan. *All* of the stuff he amassed for that
collection was considered not historically significant at the time.
Now its amazing to be able to walk down an aisle and see the evolution
of the sewing machine, or the dishwasher or the clothes washer/dryer,
etc.
Keep in mind, however, that the artifacts that he did save are the
better examples from the group - it was not picked willy-nilly. For
example, with the stoves, the timeline has the upper tier stuff (like
the Chambers slate lined oven from 1948) rather than being overrun
with crappy no-name brands.
The same is true for computer collections. Yes, you could collect
every model of PDP-11, but when it comes down to it, only a few really
are worthwhile for the long run. And now the room is filled with
PDP-11s, and you can not fit a PDP-10 in the collection.
--
Will