“The smell of a room can bring you to that room faster than a picture,” Benaim remarked. To create what he called a “reconstruction of an epoch,” the students and researchers are delicately capturing the smells of different objects and historic areas of the 1906 Morgan. They’ve descended to the basement, with its antique Otis elevator works, examined the fireplace, and climbed up to a 16th-century tapestry, which is the only textile known to date to J. P. Morgan’s time.
— Perfumer Carlos Benaïm and others are trying to figure out what the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan might have smelled like when it was founded in 1906. Read more at Researchers Bury Their Noses in Books to Sniff Out the Morgan Library’s Original Smell at Hyperallergic. Hat tip to Monkeytoe!
Love this! It’s smell-archaeology.
I breathe deep when I enter a space for the first so I can enjoy and remember the smell. Home, work, market, shops, library, all the smells are wonderful.
It’s a great story — and would love to smell the outcome!
SotD = L’Eau d’Hiver dabbed from a sample vial on this cold-ish rabbit rabbit rabbit morning. I think Alice’s White Rabbit could wear this one. It feels sparkly and smooth, cool and comfy, a great start for the day. JCE is both maestro and magician. I’ll reapply in the warm afternoon to see how it works then.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, NST. You make the world a better place.
Whoops! meant this for over there —> SotD
Please send coffee!
Hope you got that coffee by now