July 11th!

So I wasn't able to get a post up about my day on the 11th, but it's probably better that I'm writing about it later on, because it was quite the day.

I got to work at 8 as usual and started the archaeology project. I didn't come across anything too out of the ordinary. Just the same glass shards, burnt wood scraps, rusty nails and pottery shards. I ran out of the catalog tags so I had to go to the other building to get more from Mollie. While we were waiting for them to print out, we started talking about our future trip to the Science Museum where we'll get to hang out with one of the curators. I mentioned that I really admired the work of the curators at the MN History Center. Mollie then emailed both of the men involved and asked them if they would meet with me! I have emailed the man that will be in MN before I move back to Chicago, so we'll see how that goes!

After talking to Mollie, I went back to Metro and worked on the arch project until noon when we had a collections committee meeting. About seven members of the committee made it to the meeting, and it was really interesting to see the political aspect of collections being played out. First, Mollie presented new items to the committee in order to determine whether or not they should be added to the collections. There were some really cool old St Paul Club magazines, photographs, paintings and train memorabilia. As Mollie presented each item, she described the donor and what the historical value was to Ramsey County. The main concern of the committee was how would the item be stored and how much space it would take up. It was a little disheartening to hear the merit of items come down to this concern, but it is understandable. It's hard to imagine many more items fitting into the storage facility.

The next main topic discussed was deaccessioning, or the legal removal of items from a museum or historical society's collections. Deaccessioning is a really difficult and  labor intensive process because there is a ton of paperwork to be filled out to make sure that the donors, or the closest people alive to the donors, know that the historical society is removing their object from the collection and why. In the past, a museum in Minnesota changed their focus and had to remove a big portion of their inventory, however, they didn't do it correctly and were shut down. Therefore, Mollie stressed to the committee that while the deaccessioning was really important, it needed to be done very carefully and very meticulously. She estimates that it will take around 8 hours of work and research per item in order to properly remove it. A large part of the work goes into trying to figure out who should receive the item if the donor does not want it back. The most desirable situation is to give the item to another historical society or museum that it would be more relevant to. An example of this is an old 19th century buckboard that says "Artichoke County, Big Stone Lake, MN" on it. Obviously, the buckboard would be more appropriately kept at the Big Stone County historical society than Ramsey. Other items, like a char with no legs and a barrel that is similar to the other seven barrels in the collection are a little bit stickier. It is possible to legally sell items that have been properly deaccessioned, however, this creates a bit of a moral problem. Is it right for RCHS to sell an item that was given to us in the hope that it would be preserved and presented to the public? The committee strongly believed that many of the items without a clear direction should be "put up on eBay and sold by the interns". This suggestion was not warmly received by Mollie and will most likely not be used. It was a bit upsetting to see these items so carelessly dismissed as something that could be sold for $5 at a garage sale. However, I feel more secure in the future care of the items because Mollie very much respects their importance and I am completely sure they will all go to loving homes where possible. Some of the things, like a chair with no legs, will truly need to just be thrown away. As I discussed earlier, not everything can or should be saved.

This week was not as exciting in the way of looking at artifacts, however, it was very cool to see the political workings of a historical society and how carefully a curator needs to interface with their committee and board.