Abstract
This research explores the tension between the preservation of physical artifacts and the intangible experiences they represent as evidence of a lived life, particularly in relation to women’s voices and institutional memory. Drawing from socio-political shifts in the United States and a winter practicum at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, it critiques traditional curatorial practices that often erase or diminish women’s histories. The exhibition, You Have Been Here Before, Welcome Home, confronts this cycle of exclusion, offering a space for reflection while urging a reevaluation of what and who is deemed worthy of preservation.