This is an interesting question. Most natural history museums that I know
of do not "solicit" donations; they prefer to acquire materials through
the collecting efforts of their own staff because of the complexities of
the permits required. Most donations of the type you describe are
unsolicited, i.e., they are brought to our attention because someone
wishes to donate them. Exceptions arise when a private collector wishes to
donate a personal collection and uses a third party to approach several
institutions. Most natural history museums are wary of private collections
because private collectors may or may not keep their specimens and records
up to museum standards, and would carefully check the associated
information and supporting documentation very carefully. (In addition,
most natural history museums have very limited space, just like everyone
else, and are often unable to accept poorly documented or no-data
collections, no matter how attractive they are, because they have no
scientific value.)

From my own experience, I would say that a museum would not solicit the
donation of a collection without such a check on information, especially
after several widely-publicized prosecutions over the past few years. The
question of whether the museum should notify authorities of suspicious
material in an unsolicited donation is a hot topic. If I were offered
specimens which I knew had been stolen from a museum or other public
institution or public land area, I would definitely notify my director,
who would have the authority to get in touch with the appropriate agency.
If I were offered specimens with poor documentation, I would not be able
to accept them, but that in itself would not be sufficient cause to
notify authorities; I would simply decline the donation and explain why.

A natural history museum that is actively trying to acquire a collection
usually does so because of the information associated with it, in the
form of catalogues, field notes, and other records. So the scenario of a
museum trying to get a poorly documented collection and then ringing the
authorities because the collection is suspiciously poorly documented
shouldn't happen unless a museum person is terribly careless in the first
place. (We never promise that we will accept a donation, only that we
will look at it, and we do require that all the documentation be
available for review as well. We accept no donations without their
documentation.)

We do notify the appropriate agencies when we receive unsolicited
donations on the doorstep, which has literally happened. We are generally
allowed to keep these as long as their means of acquisition is
documented, if we want them.

In the case of trying to acquire an orphaned or abandoned collection, we
would also work up-front with the appropriate agencies to make sure that
they are aware of what is being transferred, and what documentation the
collection does or does not have.

The only instances I know of in which the law was notified of a
questionable collection are those in which the donor approached the
museum first (the museum did not solicit the donation) and the museum
found out that (a) the specimens were known to have been stolen, and/or
(b) the "donor" was not the owner or an agent of the donor and had no
right to offer the collection.

With regard to agency support of collections from public lands: this was
discussed at a meeting in Berkeley last summer. Several places are working
with the National Park Service or other agencies to establish formal
repositories for collections from Federal and state public lands. In
general, museums have historically acted as unpaid repositories for
specimens from public lands, but several entities are working proactively
to make such arrangements more mutually beneficial. The Federal land
management agencies have generally been given very little funding to
support collection management and have been greatly aided by museums
acting as repositories, and my experience is that there is very limited
funding available to assist with the costs that museums incur in caring
for these materials. A recent article in the Association of Systematics
Collections _Newsletter_ by Lynn Kimsey summarizes several of the issues
involved here.

Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation
President-Elect, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections


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|                                                                       |
|                 San Diego Natural History Museum                      |
|                          P. O. Box 1390                               |
|                San Diego, California   92112  USA                     |
|             phone (619) 232-3821; FAX (619) 232-0248                  |
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|                                                                       |
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