How did Joseph Cornell use found objects in his box assemblages?

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Edmonia Lewis: Hagar — Western sculpture *Hagar*, marble sculpture by Edmonia Lewis, 1875; in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Joseph Cornell was a pioneer of assemblage, a form of sculpture in which he joined unlikely items into an unorthodox unity. He is best known for his "shadow boxes"—also referred to as "memory boxes" or "poetic theatres"—which were glass-fronted containers that housed found objects and collaged elements.1

Cornell arranged these items in enigmatic, poetic juxtapositions to evoke specific themes or narratives. His boxes often featured recurrent motifs such as astronomy, music, commedia dell’arte, birds, seashells, broken crystal, and travel souvenirs.1

For example, his seminal work Untitled (Soap Bubble Set) encased a doll’s head, a clay soap-bubble pipe, a pale blue egg in a wineglass, four cylindrical weights, and a map of the Moon. Cornell frequently organized these objects into thematic series, such as his Pharmacy series, which resembled miniature apothecaries, or his Aviary series, which focused on birds.1