Connecting to Collections Care

I am looking for insight on how other institutions catalog their contemporary acquisitions, like replicas and models created for an exhibit, or purchased props (a contemporary clock, for example). Do you accession everything you plan to exhibit and store in collections, or do you have a separate catalog for non-historical artifacts that don't have to go through a rigorous accessioning process?

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Lydia Rao
Manager of Collections and Exhibits
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara, CA
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Hello Lydia,  as a conservator that regularly conducts collection condition assessments for institutions I would say PLEASE catalog replicas and props separately from historical objects in your collection.  I have worked with collections where this was not done, and it is confusing and frustrating - during a recent survey I carried out, over half of the objects I looked at were modern replicas or items purchased as props from the Colonial Williamsburg store in the 1980's.  As it was a fixed term contract this meant I had a lot less time to spend looking at the historical artefacts in the collection, so ultimately it was a waste of quite a lot of my time and waste of a good chunk of the institution's money.

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Howard Sutcliffe
Principal Conservator
River Region Costume and Textile Conservation
Arley AL / Nashville TN
267 974 1913
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Hi Howard,

I share a similar concern that resources will be unevenly allocated towards contemporary items that don't need the same level of care as historical artifacts, thanks for confirming this!

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Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-06-2023 08:07
From: Howard Sutcliffe
Subject: Accessioning Props and Models?

Hello Lydia,  as a conservator that regularly conducts collection condition assessments for institutions I would say PLEASE catalog replicas and props separately from historical objects in your collection.  I have worked with collections where this was not done, and it is confusing and frustrating - during a recent survey I carried out, over half of the objects I looked at were modern replicas or items purchased as props from the Colonial Williamsburg store in the 1980's.  As it was a fixed term contract this meant I had a lot less time to spend looking at the historical artefacts in the collection, so ultimately it was a waste of quite a lot of my time and waste of a good chunk of the institution's money.

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Howard Sutcliffe
Principal Conservator
River Region Costume and Textile Conservation
Arley AL / Nashville TN
267 974 1913
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Original Message:
Sent: 1/10/2023 2:27:00 PM
From: Lydia Rao
Subject: RE: Accessioning Props and Models?

Hi Howard,

I share a similar concern that resources will be unevenly allocated towards contemporary items that don't need the same level of care as historical artifacts, thanks for confirming this!

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Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara CA
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Hi Lydia,

Your question is really more registration than conservation in nature, so I would encourage you to also get advice from a forum such as Connecting to Collections Care. Based on the experience of museums I have worked for, however, I can tell you that I have noticed that it can sometimes be difficult to get rid of artifacts that were acquired essentially as props for exhibits (and that therefore have little to no enduring value to the collections) after the fact. At some point you will inevitably be faced with a space crunch and will want to get such items out of the museum. I would think that formally accessioning them into the collection would make that even more difficult in terms of logistics, cost, and public relations. It is generally easier to accession an artifact than to deaccession one. From a conservation perspective, formal accessioning immediately puts those objects into a different category of responsibility - one that entails a moral and perhaps legal obligation to care for the objects as museum collections in perpetuity, and all that that entails in terms of resources.

Dee




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Dee Stubbs-Lee
Conservator
New Brunswick Museum
Saint John NB
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Luckily Lydia came to the right place! From personal experience I would also advocate creating different collection categories to help answer some of these issues. These different levels of care and handling should also be included in your collection management policy to alleviate any future questions.

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Robin Bauer Kilgo (she/her/hers)
Connecting to Collections Care Coordinator, FAIC
c2cc@culturalheritage.org
Contract Registrar/Consultant
rbkilgo@gmail.com
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-06-2023 08:39
From: Dee Stubbs-Lee
Subject: Accessioning Props and Models?

Hi Lydia,

Your question is really more registration than conservation in nature, so I would encourage you to also get advice from a forum such as Connecting to Collections Care. Based on the experience of museums I have worked for, however, I can tell you that I have noticed that it can sometimes be difficult to get rid of artifacts that were acquired essentially as props for exhibits (and that therefore have little to no enduring value to the collections) after the fact. At some point you will inevitably be faced with a space crunch and will want to get such items out of the museum. I would think that formally accessioning them into the collection would make that even more difficult in terms of logistics, cost, and public relations. It is generally easier to accession an artifact than to deaccession one. From a conservation perspective, formal accessioning immediately puts those objects into a different category of responsibility - one that entails a moral and perhaps legal obligation to care for the objects as museum collections in perpetuity, and all that that entails in terms of resources.

Dee




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Dee Stubbs-Lee
Conservator
New Brunswick Museum
Saint John NB
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Original Message:
Sent: 1/6/2023 12:33:00 PM
From: Robin Bauer Kilgo
Subject: RE: Accessioning Props and Models?

Luckily Lydia came to the right place! From personal experience I would also advocate creating different collection categories to help answer some of these issues. These different levels of care and handling should also be included in your collection management policy to alleviate any future questions.

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--------------------------------------
Robin Bauer Kilgo (she/her/hers)
Connecting to Collections Care Coordinator, FAIC
c2cc@culturalheritage.org
Contract Registrar/Consultant
rbkilgo@gmail.com
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 1/6/2023 6:10:00 PM
From: Rose McMahon
Subject: RE: Accessioning Props and Models?

It's also a management issue.,

I had not come across accessioning non collection items into the collection in the UK. 

When I was working in a U.S. museum I was told the props were to be regarded in the same way as collections by my manager. 

I found this confused and confusing as to me they were both distinct things.

A clearly written policy outlining the distinctions, similarities, and overlap between the museums' artefacts, and the relation to collection policy would have been helpful.

Sent from my iPhone

Original Message:
Sent: 1/6/2023 12:33:00 PM
From: Robin Bauer Kilgo
Subject: RE: Accessioning Props and Models?

Luckily Lydia came to the right place! From personal experience I would also advocate creating different collection categories to help answer some of these issues. These different levels of care and handling should also be included in your collection management policy to alleviate any future questions.

------------------------------
--------------------------------------
Robin Bauer Kilgo (she/her/hers)
Connecting to Collections Care Coordinator, FAIC
c2cc@culturalheritage.org
Contract Registrar/Consultant
rbkilgo@gmail.com
------------------------------

Lydia,
I'm interested in the answers to this question. At the Pro Football Hall of Fame we have several hundred educational props. Right now we have an Excel file inventory of everything. I have debated whether to create an Educational Prop module in our database that would give us the option catalog everything. However, I don't think we would catalog everything as rigorously as we do for our regular accessions.

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Jason Aikens
Curator
Pro Football Hall of Fame
Canton OH
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We accession all items in the same database (PastPerfect), but use object ID conventions to distinguish whether something is part of the permanent collection or the teaching collection.  Permanent collection is what it sounds like, things we're keeping for all time, while Teaching collection items can come and go. Permanent collection items are identified by the year, lot, and item number: 2023.001.0001.  Teaching collection items are set off by a T at the beginning: T2023.001.0001.  We also store permanent and teaching items separately- Permanent collection items are locked in our climate-controlled storage room, Teaching items are stored on open shelves where the educators can get to them easily.

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Martin Christiansen
Collections Management Specialist
Worcester MA
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Lydia, 

I will echo what Martin has explained, but also state that I am still working on creating such a system at our institution for the same reasons you described at yours. I am still puzzling out which objects are designated to which specific collection type and exactly what numbering system I want to create. We have instituted a numbering system for our Education Collection items that are only ever used for our school groups. Those objects begin with an E and then continue with their previously assigned accession number, e.g. E2022.01.001. For the objects that are actively used for general interpretation but already/currently have an accession number (which suggests they are permanent collection items), I asked around to some of my personal museum contacts to poll how they had handled this situation. Like Martin, they suggested designating such items as being in the Interpretation or Prop Collection, and thus assigning the corresponding letter to preceded the accession number. In other words, the number would stay the same but it would have an I or P at the beginning. I have been leaning more towards using P for Prop because at some point we will be working on our Institutional Archives, and those will probably have an IA at the beginning of their accession number. I do not want to contribute towards possibly creating more confusion down the road. I've been at too many institutions where I had to untangle and make sense of why and how collections had been processed prior to my arrival and with no documentation, so my mind always goes to "what will make sense to someone in the future." And I will reiterate someone else's point about documenting the decision and reasoning behind it in the Collections Management Policy and/or Cataloguing Standards Document. Best of luck, and please share what you decide since I too am still weighing the best approach in this situation.

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Jan Masterson
Curator of Collections & Exhibits
Mesquite TX
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-06-2023 17:14
From: Martin Christiansen
Subject: Accessioning Props and Models?

We accession all items in the same database (PastPerfect), but use object ID conventions to distinguish whether something is part of the permanent collection or the teaching collection.  Permanent collection is what it sounds like, things we're keeping for all time, while Teaching collection items can come and go. Permanent collection items are identified by the year, lot, and item number: 2023.001.0001.  Teaching collection items are set off by a T at the beginning: T2023.001.0001.  We also store permanent and teaching items separately- Permanent collection items are locked in our climate-controlled storage room, Teaching items are stored on open shelves where the educators can get to them easily.

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Martin Christiansen
Collections Management Specialist
Worcester MA
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Hi Lydia,
I'll chime in and agree with what a few others have said about how they go about tracking props/non-historical items. One way that we do this is to add the items to our Education Collection. This gets us around fully accessioning them (and then needed to go to our board to deaccession them), but allows us to create a record in the database so that we can track the location, purchase price, storage location, etc. 
We are also in the process of setting up a record type specific to education/prop items. For instance, right now our record types include: object, photograph, document, digital asset, and oral history. We are working to create an education object type where we can better catalog and track items like this so that they do not get confused with historical items. 
We also have a specific physical numbering system for props to help with getting them confused with historical items and to help in tracking, locating, etc. It's similar to ours for accessioned items, but distinct to help ID them as props.
Toni Kiser

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Toni Kiser
Assistant Director of Collections and Exhibits / Registrar
National WWII Museum
New Orleans LA
(864) 430-7716
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Hi Toni,

Thanks for this insight! We also have several record types: Object, Photograph, Document archives, and Books. Can I ask how your numbering system differs between props and accessioned historical items?
​

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Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2023 10:32
From: Toni Kiser
Subject: Accessioning Props and Models?

Hi Lydia,
I'll chime in and agree with what a few others have said about how they go about tracking props/non-historical items. One way that we do this is to add the items to our Education Collection. This gets us around fully accessioning them (and then needed to go to our board to deaccession them), but allows us to create a record in the database so that we can track the location, purchase price, storage location, etc.
We are also in the process of setting up a record type specific to education/prop items. For instance, right now our record types include: object, photograph, document, digital asset, and oral history. We are working to create an education object type where we can better catalog and track items like this so that they do not get confused with historical items.
We also have a specific physical numbering system for props to help with getting them confused with historical items and to help in tracking, locating, etc. It's similar to ours for accessioned items, but distinct to help ID them as props.
Toni Kiser

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Toni Kiser
Assistant Director of Collections and Exhibits / Registrar
National WWII Museum
New Orleans LA
(864) 430-7716
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Hi Lydia,
For us, our accessioned artifact collection is numbered much like other institutions, 2022.001.001 for example. For items we place in the Education Collection, we start the number with EDU. So a reproduced uniform shirt used on a mannequin would be numbered something like EDU.223.001. The letters appear first which is the key marker that it is not accessioned. When we use letters for accessioned items, like a pair of boots, the letters are lowercase and come at the end, 2021.001.001a and 2021.001.001b. We also use FASC to denote when a paper item is a facsimile/reproduction and then less common for us PROP. 
Hope that helps!

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Toni Kiser
Senior Registrar & Director of Collections Management
National WWII Museum
New Orleans LA
(864) 430-7716
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-10-2023 14:25
From: Lydia Rao
Subject: Accessioning Props and Models?

Hi Toni,

Thanks for this insight! We also have several record types: Object, Photograph, Document archives, and Books. Can I ask how your numbering system differs between props and accessioned historical items?
​

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Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara CA
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-09-2023 10:32
From: Toni Kiser
Subject: Accessioning Props and Models?

Hi Lydia,
I'll chime in and agree with what a few others have said about how they go about tracking props/non-historical items. One way that we do this is to add the items to our Education Collection. This gets us around fully accessioning them (and then needed to go to our board to deaccession them), but allows us to create a record in the database so that we can track the location, purchase price, storage location, etc.
We are also in the process of setting up a record type specific to education/prop items. For instance, right now our record types include: object, photograph, document, digital asset, and oral history. We are working to create an education object type where we can better catalog and track items like this so that they do not get confused with historical items.
We also have a specific physical numbering system for props to help with getting them confused with historical items and to help in tracking, locating, etc. It's similar to ours for accessioned items, but distinct to help ID them as props.
Toni Kiser

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Toni Kiser
Assistant Director of Collections and Exhibits / Registrar
National WWII Museum
New Orleans LA
(864) 430-7716

Hi Lydia,

At my museum, we have a "Utility" collection to catalog everything from props to repros, anything that might be mistaken for an actual historic object. I believe they use the same accessioning and naming convention as actual objects, but the accession number begins with UT to denote utility. They are stored separately from actual objects, and their files mark everything clearly as utility. Hope this helps!

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Laurie King
Archaeological Conservator
The Mariners' Museum and Park
Newport News VA
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