Ted Landsmark has been a collector all his life. As a kid, he was drawn to the die-cast metal vehicles from Liverpool known as Dinky Toys. In adulthood, he sought artifacts that could illuminate aspects of African-American history, including pottery, quilts, and furniture.
Like a lot of collectors, Landsmark acknowledges that the urge to collect can be traced to a fear of loss that begins in childhood.
“It’s not about having,” said Landsmark, who wrote his PhD thesis at Boston University on the art of collecting. “It’s about seeking and acquiring.”
His Boston home and his office at Northeastern University both display examples of what has become perhaps the most significant obsession of Landsmark’s lifetime: Antique banjos.
As a Black man who grew up in public housing in Harlem, he’s quick to admit that he surprised himself when he became interested in the instrument. More than two decades after a chance encounter with a banjo enthusiasts’ conference in an airport hotel, he still can’t play the instrument very well.
