Connecting to Collections Care

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
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We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------

Hi Lydia, 
As the acting C2C Care community monitor, I'd like to thank you for posting this query to the community. Looking through our listing of care experts I don't find any with specific expertise with rigging for vessels, and it sounds like a complex issue. It seems like it would be important to document and/or describe the previous rigging and perhaps that has already been done. It sounds like a good opportunity for networking with other maritime museums on the West Coast. Meanwhile, I encourage any experts in this field to share their experiences.

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------

Lydia,

One of The Mariners' Museum archaeological conservators here. I agree with Nidia Navarro-Potel, I would suggest to keep them as there can be technical and historical information in the original pieces that even the best reproductions won't have. Things like style of manufacturing, materials used, quality of manufacture, just to name a few (if you need to argue your case). I'd suggest just putting them in storage and documenting what location in the ship they originated from. 

Best of luck!

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------

Adding on to what others have already wrote - is the vessel a designated historical national landmark? Institutions managing vessels with that designation are expected to follow certain guidelines to maintain that designation. Does it have any other special status that might have guidelines you need to follow? How old is it? The older it is, the more valuable original components are for researchers and conservators later on because there is usually less information about their manufacture. It is important to look at your collections policies and if this issue isn't addressed, it would be a good time to add that in since it will probably come up again. Components of an accessioned object, in my interpretation generally, should still be considered accessioned for legal purposes. Additionally, it is otherwise too easy for someone who doesn't know better to not consider the ramifications of throwing parts away (I speak from experience on this one unfortunately). If the decision ends up being that they will be gotten rid of, I would at the very least get someone who specializes in historic ship restoration to document the specs of those components.

We have a historic vessel at our museum that is accessioned, and it recently underwent some restoration. New rigging and anchors were installed. Is it important to retain the old anchors and rigging even though those items are not accessioned individually? 

Thanks in advance,

------------------------------
Lydia Rao
Collections Manager
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum
Santa Barbara CA
------------------------------