Vaughan Claw Hammer

JE has a vintage Vaughan claw hammer, a “California Framer,” circa 1940, and she has used it this January for a very specific reason. This Christmas, she was given a handmade wooden birdhouse from her husband, who has begun the New Year with another woman. The hammer was responsible for knocking down the birdhouse (no birds harmed!) and JE feels just a little bit better. JE, who lives in Santa Barbara, wants to know if she can donate the hammer to a museum now that it has “done its work.”

Likely the strangest request I have ever received, however, JE, there is a museum which will gladly accept the 20” hammer: The Museum of Broken Relationships, both a physical place and a touring exhibition of objects that have spurred personal narratives of break-ups, losses, divorce, and heartbreak. Although the museum’s permanent home is in Zagreb, Croatia, JE may offer the hammer to this museum as it regularly tours the large cities of the world: Tokyo, San Francisco, Berlin, Paris, London, and Shanghai. In Berlin, heartbroken people donated many items as the show opened. In total the museum contains 3,500 items donated by individuals from around the world, and these objects must include a memento or a story to be accepted into the collection.

The museum’s brilliant premise was the result of a broken relationship: two Croatian lovers, Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic, two artists, fell in love over 20 years ago, and broke up in 2003. Olinka gave away all the trinkets he had given her, to friends, but when Drazen suggested they form a museum of their gifts to each other, all friends sent back the objects. Thinking it a fun lark, the two friends, no longer lovers, toured the collection through the coffeehouses of Zagreb. Surprisingly, other brokenhearted people offered to donate objects and stories to the tour; friends lobbied the cultural council for a permanent museum space, but were laughed off. So the non-couple bought a space for a private museum of their own in Zagreb in 2010. The museum opened a second permanent location in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2024.

The museum is a great success, and now JE may donate the Vaughan hammer with her story; there are two ways to donate – one is to actually send the item, which is called a “donation of material remains,” and this method must come with locations, details, stories (where and when and what). The other way to donate and immortalize one’s pain is to upload images and documents, including pieces of the personal collection around the object. 

The mission statement of the museum is to document the fragility of human relationships, and to think about it, our relationships carry political, cultural, and social mores and customs; our stories and woes tell of our identities and our catharsis.

Details of the hammer? JE wants to know if she is giving away a valuable piece of Americana: it is worth $50, and is the result of the Vaughan & Bushnell Manufacturing Co., founded in 1869, priding itself on using only American labor. The logo on the hammer does not tell us its age because the company has used the same one for years. 

If The Museum of Broken Relationships will not accept the hammer or if it is just too far to send the hammer to Zagreb, JE might think about a donation to a museum closer to home (Culver City), The Museum of Jurassic Technology, which I personally visited years ago with my mother, a very logical mathematician/musician who did not understand why a museum would show unreal displays like Pronged Ants, or photos of horned humans, and a culinary display of Mice on Toast. In fact, mom was insulted because a museum should be – she thought – about facts not fiction. The museum, run by David Wilson, is a work of genius for the very reason that my mom was insulted. The place makes you question the role of museums, and indeed role of TRUTH, and how TRUTH is presented. If you are interested, visit, but before you go read Lawrence Weschler’s Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (1995) riffing on the foundation of our modern museum as a cabinet of curiosities, a rich man’s passion born in the 15th century. I love this material: it makes me question illusion, bias, the reason for collecting, and the desire to display. JE will let me know which museum she chooses for her hammer, a great memento.