In a message dated 12/23/2003 1:29:58 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< I like to use the word "specimen."  It has utility in anthropological,
 geological, zoological, botanical,technology.....and historical
 collections.  >>

I always liked "specimen" too because it connoted an item for research and
study, which both precedes and includes exhibition.  This was the common
nomenclature when I first started working at the Smithsonian.  I think it fell into
disuse after a politically incorrect joke went around, that a "specimen" was an
Italian astronaut.  Collection artifacts became known as "museum objects,"
then just "objects."  The latter usage led to calling office furniture, paper
clips, and computers, and anything else that wasn't part of the permanent
collection, "non-objects."  So now two offices are adjacent to our museum's loading
dock: an "Objects Processing Facility" and a "Non-Object" shipping & receiving
area.

I don't think I'll ever get used to calling some objects "non-objects."

David Haberstich

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