State of American Museums

[Peter_Suciu]

There was a new survey on the state of museums in the United States and the numbers are NOT good. This isn't just limited to military museums but these numbers are alarming! Good thing so much militaria is in private collections.
http://www.heritagehealthindex.org/<!--StartFragment -->

• 65% of collecting institutions have experienced damage to collections due to improper storage.
• 80% of U.S. collecting institutions do not have an emergency plan that includes collections, with staff trained to carry it out.
• 190 million objects are in need of conservation treatment.

[Vadim K]

Indeed. I wanted to donate some vintage toy soldiers to Forbes Gallery a number of years ago, and after they explained to me that they would just stick them in a box in some damp basement, I said "screw it".

[J.von Canon]

Museums

Some of the worst cases of "theft" are at the hands of so-called "curators"of museums.
The Atlanta Historical Society was pillaged of many rare Confederate items some years back by one particular collector-curator.
I've decided that the very best way to preserve historical items is to offer them for SALE by museums;those items rotting away in storage which are'nt being preserved due to lack of funds.
It would be a good way for museums to increase revenue while actually preserving historical relics by individuals really interrested in preserving them and having the means to do it.

[Lee Ragan]

Very little in the way of donated artifacts are ever displayed in museums. The vast majority of itmes are stored away in boxes in store rooms or wearhouses. Many collectors want to donate their collections thinking the whole world will enjoy seeing what they collected over the years, when in fact hardly anyone will ever see it again.
Famous Civil War artist Don Troiani once said on a TV show that his collection of artifacts was going to be sold to other collectors after his passing & not going to museums. Museums had enough artifacts already.

[Bobwirtz]

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[Jeff V]

I have ww2 shoulder boards from U.S. rear admiral Hugh Haysworth, along with a nice portrait picture of him. Also with this group is a letter from adm. Haysworth to the curator of a museum donating these items for their display! The items were never put on display but rather sold out the backdoor. Years later I bought them at a local antique store. I keep that letter front and center of my display to show how rotten most of these museums are.
best wishes,
jeff

[Peter_Suciu]

Almost all museums operate under the policy that items donated may be stored away or just sold. Frankly, I actually prefer that items are often sold from museums. Having been in the back rooms of many museums there is just too much stuff to put out in the permanent collections, and better it go to other collectors.

But my original post wasn't so much about the policies of museums. I still think the bigger issue is that so many items (well beyond militaria) just aren't properly stored or even displayed. And I don't think this is an American problem.

One classic example is that gallery that houses the Mona Lisa. This stupid overrated painting is protected in a special box so bozos from around the world can photograph it. The box protects the painting from the flash on cameras. Too bad the rest of the room is filled with unprotected paintings. And the worst part is no matter how well you try to photograph the damn thing the photo won't come out that good anyway. Buy the damn postcard!

[JohnB]

About 10-12 years ago a curator-expert on WWI aviation removed some extremely rare artefacts from the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. and started selling them off. The Smithsonian got much of it back but probably not all. I know two guys who testified against the crook when the Government caught up with him.
John

[Dallas]

It's sad but I am not surprised at all. PC mentality affects what is displayed. Fonzie's jacket gets priority over real history for example. I always enjoyed a good museum. The U.S. Infantry Museum is about the best in this area.

[coastie]

I once worked as a volunteer at a Naval museum for awhile. It was in a pitiful state. A new curator took over didn't know beans about militaria. The firearms in the vault were in sad shape and someone had "field-striped" them and put them back together wrong, a BAR, M3, M16 and M-1 had parts missing but were in a box. I put them all back together to full function. The museum had a sailor assigned to them by the base to help out. What they didn't know was that the kid was pending discharge for theft. Needless to say he continued on with his trade and stripped all of the uniforms of insignias/ribbons and all the medals were gone!.
Also they weren't very good about the paper work either, A friend of mine had loaned the museum a one pounder on a carriage for display, when he tried to get it back they weren't going to let him take it, he had to threaten to sue, even though he had the paper work the museum didn't. . Also I knew a man who was a curator of a large museum who was, it turned out, selling Indian artifacts and guns out the back door. He got caught and did time.


God forbid as a non-academic you ask to see something in the catalog that isn't out they politely tell you that it's unavailable.

An exception to this was I went to the Prince Albert Musuem in Bombay once and ask to see a particular Kangra miniature. It wasn't on display. We were heart broken because it was a famous painting and we had traveled 12000 miles to see it. The staff went to get the curator and she took me and my wife to the storage area and brought out the painting and let us look at it. We were very thankful and touched that they did this for us and we recipicated with a small donation.

The New York City museum I was impressed with in that they had a open display of their storage area. You could wander back and see paintings, statues and artifacts in controlled climated cases.

Sorry I'm ranting again.

[eindecker2]

My thoughts were that it is illegal for a museum to sell donated items.

[coastie]

My thoughts were that it is illegal for a museum to sell donated items.

May depend on the country.

[Bobwirtz]

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[oli4vercammen]

My thoughts were that it is illegal for a museum to sell donated items.

I don't agree with you. What if a museum gets from 20 individuals the same item? They'll just put one in display and the others will go into storrage. It's just waiste of space and if it's a uniform or a propaganda poster, it can rot away if the museum hasn't the money or proper staff to take care of the items. In my oppinion, they may ceep let's say 3 or 5 items and sell the other 17 or 15, so they can hire proper staff that is used to restorate and preserve historical items.

I supose you don't ceep also from every item in your collection more than 3 or 5 items isn't it, so why should a museum do it?

In the Belgian army museum they are hiring more and more civilian staff that has the proper certificates to deal with the military artifacts, becouse they used to let these delicate items be handeled by army personel wich wasn't capable and interested in handeling those things.

[Tim Curley]

Museums storage and selling of items

A little over 20 years ago I bought a number of TR items from a military school museum. Prior to the sale, I had gone into their storage area to find various items, many poorly stored. Among those items was a General's peaked hat stuffed into a cardboard box with hats from other countries. Hardly conducive to maintaining proper preservation. I identified the different items and made out a written description of condition for each item. Typically, graduates had sent back either personal items or items picked up around the world. And typically, most of those items would never be displayed.

When I made the school an offer for the TR lot, I requested they print the lot description in the school alumni newspaper and ask for additional offers. While I wanted the items, I did not want to be accused of ripping off the school. In the end, I made them a fair offer and they sold the lot to me. The lot contained among other things a black wrapper, a fieldgrey wrapper and a Panzer NCO waffenrock - all were missing some of their insignia. The school had no interest in restoring them - I did. It took around 15 years to finally find the proper insignia to restore the last of these tunics.

One last note - as best as I could determine, a short time before I saw these TR items in the school museum, it appears one of the student helpers walked out with a tunic for a GFM and it has not been seen since.