The silent music sheet, the replica tin and the unsewn button: Materialising nostalgia in the Marks and Spencer's archive

Abstract

This paper explores how nostalgia and collective memory are materialised, imagined, curated and orchestrated through the archive. Drawing upon the example of the Marks and Spencer's (M&S) archive, we argue that archives, particularly those containing objects, command nostalgia. They re-appropriate objects, memories and their histories into contemporary narratives. This paper adds to a body of work within and beyond geography and sociology exploring the potency and creativity of everyday materials and their ability to produce, imagine and memorialise affinities between people, places and past times. This raises questions about the politics of memory, the authenticity of objects and the nostalgic imaginaries they enliven, what we discuss as ‘faux nostalgia’. We illustrate how M&S is part of collective British memory, promoting middle-class ideals of British family life. The archive and objects on display materialise such imaginaries, creating a yearning for the spirit, values and opportunities of times gone by; interweaving them into contemporary narratives of family life to create unattainable ideals. We reflect upon the biographies of three objects from the archive: a music sheet, an unsewn button and a replica tin. By making these objects central to our account, we illustrate how they materialise and recollect nostalgia through the archive.