One of the things that I think motivates many of us is to collect things that reflect a memory of our childhood. Sometimes its a treasure, particularly a toy, which we never owned but wished we did when we were children. The other type of memory collecting is when you see something that was in your parents or grandparents home but was sold, lost or given to someone else. Two weeks ago, I was playing on eBay looking for some lamps for the house. I had typed in Chinese Deco as my search terms. Its a broad category, and after much digging, I did find the lamps that I wanted. As I was hunting, however, I discovered a print that looked familiar. Swiftwoods was the name of the home that I grew up in and that my grandfather had designed and then had built. Hanging in the front room of the house when I was a boy were several Japanese woodblock prints. The images depicted rural scenes in Japan, both in spring and autumn. Two of the prints are still with me, and the remainder were sold when I closed out my mothers home. Here on eBay was one of the prints that hung in my childhood home. So of course, I immediately bid on it. It was not something that fit in with my current dcor, but rather, it triggered a wonderful memory of holidays as a boy. About 10 days later the print arrived, and I was shocked to see it--not in a bad way, but in realizing that the one that hung in our home, in bright light, for 40 years, had faded badly. The newly acquired antique print was much brighter and showed me how far the old one faded. A lesson for all of us print collectors. So, with the print in hand, I got interested in the artist. He was a major figure in educating the West about Japanese prints. His works were modern adaptations of traditional subject matter. They were not super valuable or rare, and a wide selection was available online. That did not matter; I started a new collection around this memory piece. Since then, I have amassed a small collection of these prints. They give me pleasure because they transport me visually back to my childhood. They may not turn into a great, or even good, investment. Collecting things that reflect your past is an important part of collecting. Its also a defining moment for us as lovers of history. I am often asked why history is important to study. The beat-up chestnut that history repeats itself and thus we must study it is really pretty dated. Historical events singularly do not repeat themselves, and even large patterns do not always follow the same pathways. Rather, I would argue that studying history is about knowing ourselves now through learning from the past. It is to say that we are the product of our generation and our national identity. It is also at a very personal level a reflection of our upbringing and a simple Japanese print hanging on the wall of our house. Peter Seibert, a native Pennsylvanian, grew up in the antiques business and remains closely tied to auction houses, collectors, and dealers. Professionally, he has served as a museum director and public historian in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Virginia, and Wyoming. He holds a Master of Arts in American Studies from Penn State and has authored two books and numerous articles on decorative arts, interior design, and history.