Has this ever happened to anyone?

[watercolor]

Has anyone ever made a "culturally significant" find (by archaeological standards) then
donated it to a museum. . . because you felt it was the right thing to do. . . and then a year
or so later found out it was "stored" away someplace where no one else could see it?

Just curious. . .

 

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[Texasgopher]

Nope...but I would ask for it back so that I could display it where people could see it and appreciate it.



TG

 

[kenley]

The local museum had a WWll display with a couple of uniforms, some ration cans helmets etc. A open can of blank machine gun ammo. I guess they thought it was real enough looking. I donated a half can/with can of the real thing, complete with tracers and 1943 date stamp on the can. That was three years ago and it's still not out. Price of ammo..I think I'll go get it back.

 

[DigginThePast]

Not exactly, not to me. I know who donated certain specific identifiable items to a museum. I purchased some of those same items from a dealer on the other side of the country. Many of the other items donated are "in storage" but viewable by appointment. However, I have yet to be able to get the museum to schedule time to view these items. I wonder why?

 

[sasnz]

Yea have to agree with you SWR. when we visit the local national Museum here in auckland NZ it is often stated on the artifact description that the piece is on loan. I personally would loan any item to the Museum but if it wasnt displayed i would like most of the other readers here get it back. On the other hand if it was getting displayed I would be happy for the museum to hold onto it untill i passed if the people were getting the enjoyment out of it that you had hoped. Good question tho.

Sasnz

 

[Old Dog]

I have seen this a couple of times,
But usually only when the museum has better or more complete examples to show.

 

[kawalabear]

if you worry about things like that you can " loan" the item to the museum then when they don't need it they will call you to come get it & they don't have to store it.

my mother does it quite a bit ,she runs American outboard and has motors from 1909 and up, she probably has or is very close to having the worlds largest collection of antique outboards.

they will ask her for motors for display and when they are done they give them back.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I docent and lead tours at 2 different museums. So here's an inside look at this question:

First, the answer is yes. Very little of whatever gets donated to museums ever gets put out on display. At first glance, this seems rude of the museum perhaps, or a waste of a good item, etc.... Perhaps you're thinking "sheesk, why did I even donate it then? I could've put it on ebay and fetched a high collectible's price!" blah blah blah. These are all reasonable conclusions, it would seem, to the md'r who donates an item. I mean, afterall, isn't that the mantra we hear AGAINST our hobby sometimes? - That historic stuff, relics, etc... gets put on our own mantle place, and the public can't learn from it? Afterall, perhaps it was found on public land, so it should be "in a public museum" therefore, for all to enjoy, etc...

I've now been on both sides of the coin, as an md'r who donated things (with the above notions in mind), and now, for several years, as a museum docent. So here's the skinny:

1) Museums simply get more stuff than they can put out on display. Plain and simple. There is only so much floor space, so they put out what they can. To simply say: "why don't they rotate the displays often enough that everything gets seen over time?" The reason is, that ..... museum's don't usually get the same visitors. So if a museum went to great lengths to portray whatever theme it they exist for, they would consider it appropriately done, for the visitors, since odds are, the visitors are persons who, each time, haven't been there before. But a bigger reason why rotations aren't just the easy solution is:

2) Museums face budget and volunteer archivist shortages all the time. To rotate out displays properly (not just each thing "thrown" into a display cabinet the minute it's donated) takes docent time and budget time. I mean, seriously: how many of you have volunteered your time to work in city museums And to do things right, every paper, every document, every relic, etc... must be recorded, documented, catologued, properly stored (as per whatever preservation measures it needs), etc..... Ie.: they don't just "throw things in a room" (at least not without the ultimate intention of catologing and storing when the time and docents are available). One museum I worked at was years behind in this process. We were opening boxes of paperwork from years earlier, for instance. We painstakingly id what each item was, etc.... Afterall, presumably researchers would want a way to determine where, in the archives, info on such & such is, and would therefore need it alphabetized, foldered by type, etc.... All this takes time, and is usually done on a volunteer basis. To do any less, and I guarantee you, someone would be crying foul that things were lost, things are dis-organized, things are damaged, etc....

3) Some of you think you can attach mandates on donations. Let's look at the first "mandate" you recommend: "Must be displayed". Sounds reasonable, right? But stop and think: If museums allowed this mandate, they would basically be letting the public dictate what gets put on display. While your item *might*, in your mind, be perfectly fitting to the museum's theme, you are basically taking away the curator's say-so & decision-making. And even if he drools over one donation that he may perfectly want to display, he walks a tight-rope of political correctness. Because if he says "yes I agree" to you, how does he explain to the next person that "no I don't agree"? He is basically saying the second person "your item isn't worthy, we don't like it" etc... Which leads us to the next point:

4) Some of you may ask "why not just decline items that museums know full well they'll never display?" Because you'd be surprised how many people are offended, and make a big stink. Eg.: "What?? you mean my great grandmother gertrude's sewing machine ISN'T pertinent to the city's history?? I know full-well she stiched up soldier's uniforms with this! I'm complaining to the board of directors!" So to avoid insulting anyone, and to avoid appearing un-gracious, museums tend to accept whatever's donated.

5) Some of you have suggested adding the mandate "On Loan". In the old days, museums accepted these terms I suppose. But more and more, you will find museums not accepting these terms anymore. Reason? Because otherwise you get odd situations where someone comes in, years later perhaps, demanding that display cabinets be opened - right then and there, so they can get something back. Or worse yet, their item is in storage, and ...... what if the item can't be found? What if it was damaged in a fire, or stolen during a breakin, etc... All of the sudden the museum is legally bound, and gets in to a legal tussle. Believe it or not, museums have had people barge in, even for things that were DONATED (with no such mandates) and people saying "My sister-in-law had no business donating that sewing machine, so give it back now, lest you hear from our lawyer". For all these reasons, museums are increasingly having persons sign that anything they donate becomes the full and complete property of the museum.

Hope this clears some misconceptions, that museums are not as mean, cruel, and calloused as some might think.

 

[Sandman]

Very well said Tom............

 

[Cachefinder]

If you can Be-Friend an employee 8)

It would knock your socks off , what they have in storage.

 

[watercolor]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. . . and Tom, thanks for your perspective on the museum side.

And Cachefinder, I bet it would be a treat to see some of those storage rooms. . .

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Has anyone ever made a "culturally significant" find (by archaeological standards) then
donated it to a museum. . . because you felt it was the right thing to do. . . and then a year
or so later found out it was "stored" away someplace where no one else could see it?

Just curious. . .

Ahem!

Yes.

Be careful folks donating to certain museum's. A lot of them have to go somewhere else and sit until they are moved to irrelevantly Historical areas. There is no guarantee that some organizations will have them displayed in your area. I donate to a certain museum here where I know for a fact the relic stays put for local historic relevance.

Good Thread

 

[stefen]

The caveat is to loan (not donate) with certain stipulations such as time limits, and the like.