As part of a project to inventory the extensive hygiene, medicinal, and pharmaceutical collections at Shelburne Museum, we are soliciting responses to a survey (link below) that will assist in assessing the scope of these collections in cultural heritage organizations. Shelburne Museum houses over 5000 containers of substances that were intended to be applied, ingested, injected or inhaled to have an effect on animals or humans, in addition to dry or wet chemicals that may have been used in the processing or mixing of these products.
We are currently approximately halfway through the process of cataloging, documenting and researching all the containers through a generous 2020 IMLS Museums for America grant (MA-245455-OMS-20). As we approach the next phase of the project, we would like to get an idea of how many other organizations have these collections, their condition, and how they are handled and exhibited so that we can better develop resources to define collections policies beneficial to the entire collection care community.
Anyone who is responsible for a collection that contains items that could be considered for use as hygiene products, medicines, or pharmaceuticals (e.g. herbal remedies, patent medicines, narcotics, ointments, vaccines, face creams, cosmetics, soaps, perfumes, hair treatments, dietary supplements, pesticides, etc.) is invited to respond. Even if it's only one container!
We understand that not all respondents may be authorized as an institutional spokesperson or may wish to be anonymous in their responses. We encourage you to respond anonymously, in that case. However, we do hope you will choose to share your institution name and contact information with the understanding that any identifying information will not be published or shared without your/your institution's permission. To protect respondent/institutional privacy, we will only publish grouped results to demonstrate trends in the field. Any individually identifying information or responses that reveal connections between specific institutions and their responses will not be presented in any form unless explicit consent has been gained beforehand. Preliminary results along with a summary of the project progress to date will be presented in a panel discussion at the New England Museum Association's Annual Meeting in November 2022.
The survey consists of multiple choice questions with optional narratives and will take about 30 minutes to complete. Please respond by July 15, 2022.
Care of Historic Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Collection Survey
We appreciate your participation!
Kerith Koss Schrager, Project Consultant/Object Conservator, The Found Object Art Conservation
Anna Fowler, Collections Inventory Technician, Shelburne Museum
Nancie Ravenel, Director of Conservation, Shelburne Museum
Barbara Rathburn, Director of Collections, Shelburne Museum
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Kerith Koss Schrager
Objects Conservator
(212) 920-5535
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