Collecting occurs in many different settings or contexts of use. Seven gross contexts are identified, according to their chief protagonists: Accumulators; Librarians; Filers; Archivists; Museum and Gallery Curators; Private Curators; and Amateur Collectors. The history of each context up to the start of the Icon Age is briefly described together with a working definitionDefinitions for each one. Accumulators started collecting foodFood, cooking utensils and clothing thousands of years ago but have now become prolific collectors of consumer items. The first libraries emerged around 300O BCE. The arrival of the printing press in 1455 spurred the growth of the modern library. Factual information has been filed ever since writingWriting started on clay tabletsClay tablets. However, the arrival of the vertical filing cabinetFiling cabinet around 1900 formed the basis of modern ideas about filing. Archives provide long-term storage for files and other material for which there is no longer an immediate need. Churches and States have always amassed treasures; but the modern museum/gallery emerged from the culture of Wonder CabinetsWonder Cabinets displaying unusual and exotic items in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Powerful people and organisations have also amassed private collections of treasures over the centuries. In contrast, the Amateur Collector is a more recent phenomenon—though in the twentyfirst century their numbers are huge and the range of objects they collect is vast.