ephemera
Pamela Apkarian-Russell

EPHEMERA, MUSEUMS, AND YOU

    Museums and historical societies are full of ephemera, but they don’t think of it like that. To them, it is documents, ledgers, bill heads, historical documentation, etc. It is all neatly categorized, and preserved in an acid free environment, sitting there in hopes that someone, somewhere, some time will want to utilize it. Just as you and I wouldn’t retain tax receipts after the required number of years, people a hundred years ago didn’t retain bills, receipts, and letters. Those that have been kept are now considered documentation. Are you willing to clog up the old homestead for the next hundred or so years with cancelled checks and receipts from Burger King? Of course not but a hundred years from now there just might be someone who might wish they knew what you paid for the archaic computer or CD you are using today and feel is so upscale and mod. Times change. Early bill heads and envelopes, if they are graphic, can be very appealing. Coke canceled checks are an example of an item that is collected because of the category it falls into. Our checks wouldn’t be of any interest but a company that put its logo on it is of interest to many people. With all of this type of thing, it is a question of how much has survived, from how far back. The more colors involved and how intricate and topical the subject matter is will make a major difference in the value of the item. A Jewish Ragman is much more interesting than John Doe selling valve fittings. A heading from a Gun Company showing a particular model shot gun is more desirable that one selling collars and cuffs. When museums acquire items they are looking for more than just age. They want a package deal, an item that has as much going for it as possible. Condition, artistic merit, content, age, historical significance all are considered. It is often better to have an item or group of items appraised before deciding what to do with them.
    Why are museums deaccessioning all the time? Why, when you donate a collection of items you think your local historical society should be hysterically happy to receive, do they leave it sitting in a box untouched, hardly ever displayed, languishing until someone comes along and says: “Oh, let’s get rid of this old stuff. We have one too many of these anyway.” Have you any idea how many items, all the same, are sitting in the vaults of major museums? Do you have any idea of how much is donated to museums every year that will never be displayed? Pick the highest number you know and then add on more zeros. I’ve heard this story so many times and yet it still unsettles me.
    “I donated items to the museum and they never displayed it…I donated items to the museum and they sold it…I donated items to the museum and when I wanted to photograph it they wanted to charge me.” The list goes on. Let’s dissect this, or at least look at it a bit more in-depth. Museums do not have infinite space to store items and historical societies have less. Did you ask the museum if they wanted it and what they were going to do with it once they received it? Is the item you are donating so valuable that it will be prohibitive for them to insure it? Is it pertinent to that museum? If a museum has 20 of the same Georgian candelabra, do they really want another pair? The reason they only display one pair is they only have room for one pair. Would you get more pleasure seeing them all lined up in a row? Of course not. If you gave a “Declaration of Independence” (original) to your historical society, would they have the money to properly preserve the item and insure it? Would you give a New Hampshire document to an Indiana historical society because it was in your uncle’s estate and he lived in Indiana? You’d be surprised how many people do. Museums are forever being given stuff they no more want than a wig maker wants a “Bald is Beautiful” bumper sticker on his car.
    Oh yes, there are some historical societies that want it all, just so it can be deaccessioned. There are those which are photograph-happy and will take pictures, and get rid of the originals. Some great finds have been made by people who picked the historical societies’ trash. Then, there are the deaccessions that are made because an important piece comes up and the only way they can acquire it is by letting go of something else. You’ve done it with your own collection. Sometimes it is an upgrade and sometimes it is because the item is so wonderful that it is more important to own that piece than three or four pieces you already own. Museums have a budget just like we do, and they have to live within it. Most of the time the curators have the best interest of the museum in mind.
    The more you use the museum you have in mind to donate items to, the more you will know if they can use the items. Follow up with a talk to the acquisitions curator, and don’t be shy about asking what they will do with the items. Remember they are not doing you a favor; you are doing them a favor. If the items have no strings attached they have every right to sell the item. If the collection or item(s) must stay in the museum collection, then stipulate that in the written agreement. If it must be on display at all times, stipulate that too. Then again, if this is just a tax write off, do you care what they do with it? There are many angles to consider and one of them is the museum’s wishes and needs. When you donate to a museum, make sure that if the items are going to be placed in archives for research (this is for documents, papers, photos, ledgers, maps, postcards, ephemera, booklets, etc) that they are available to anyone who wants to use them for research, not just the elite few who are working on a dissertation on the totally esoteric.
    If genealogy is involved or items pertaining to your family, make sure the items will be accessible free of charge to you and members of your family. There are some museums that will charge you fifty dollars per photograph to pull your family items, which you donated. They will not let you handle the items, but make photocopies for you to make your choices from.
    Every museum and historical society is different. If the item donated has great value, then you may want to have papers drawn up. If it is only a few dollars, then it is hardly worth thinking about. Loaning items to these places is also acceptable and allows you to take your time worrying about what you really want to do. Museums are indispensable but like everything else, some are good and some not so. They are only as good as the curators and the board of directors allows them to be. In some cases, corporations have taken over those boards and they are now for the aggrandizement of a product, not for the best interests of the people who use them. If museum attendance is down or young people will not go to them or utilize them, then there is something very wrong. A museum with an attitude, or a desire to be for the “exclusive” is not a museum but a private collection. Then there are private collections of which the owners tout themselves as being the curator. Beware of the snob blob. Always, when in doubt consult with a lawyer. Remember that a gift given is a gift given. Museums should also keep in mind they are there for your benefit. Without you, and people like you that donate to museums and use them, they would not exist.