This presentation discusses GSA's plaster cast collection through the lens of archival holdings in relation to broader themes of teaching, value, and aura. Images and documents in GSA Archives & Collections allow us to trace a still-emerging picture of how and why the institution used casts as tools for learning. In more recent times, not least after the two fires in the Mackintosh building, the tangible and intangible presence of GSA's plaster casts as objects of memory and creative response continues to exert fascination and impact, speaking to the powerful sense of affect within archival holdings and learning through heritage objects.