It began innocently enough: a snowglobe from Philadelphia, sent to a friend in Boston in 1997 inside a tiny, handcrafted wooden box. A few more particularly kitschy examples were acquired, and soon there were a dozen snowglobes on a windowsill. Now it was a collection, and once friends and family decide you collect something, you can't fight it. Who among us hasn't gotten a strange gift from a grandparent with a note like, "I remembered you collect unicorns!" (twenty years ago).

Within no time, a dozen snowglobes became fifty, fifty became one hundred. Why fight it? The collectors were both museum professionals, as were many of their donors, so began acknowledging gifts with credit lines and accession numbers. A database was created. A website soon followed. The collection was even used in a Volkswagen advertisement.

In 2004 the snowglobes were packed up for a move but never got unpacked—until now. Welcome to the first public viewing of the newly christened Museum of the Modern Snowglobe.