In article <[log in to unmask]>, SOHS Collections Department
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Is anyone else wrestling with 20th century collecting, more
>specifically, collecting three dimensional and archival materials from
>the past twenty five years.  How do any of you decide what to collect on
>a county or local level without dramatically increasing the size of your
>collections?

Our collecting policy is regularly revised (current one was written five
years ago, finalising a new one now).  We make no difference between
ages of objects.  If the area of activity (be it child rearing or brick
making) persists over a period of time, we want to collect throughout
that period.  Buckinghamshire County Museum contains Natural History and
Archaeological collections, as well as the Social History ones, so for
some things, we go way, way back.

We start with a grand, sweeping plan: for Social History (aka known as
stuff which hasn't been alive, been buried, or used by the Upper Classes
as decoration), something along the lines 'we will build a collection
which reflects the lives of the people of Buckinghamshire now and in the
past'.  The current re-write has seen a bit of a revolution: where it
used to deal with all kinds of areas, piecemeal with no overall system,
I've been looking at the collections according to their SHIC
classifications.  This has been partially prompted by 1997/2000's big
exercise: create, for every object in the museum, a record which states
its number, its location, its previous legal owner and transfer of
ownership/management, its classification (kinds according to
department), the kind of thing it is (its name), a short free-text
description, whether or not it has a relationship to Milton Keynes
(which used to be part of Buckinghamshire), and a couple of other
things.

It's been an interesting exercise.  Because SHIC classifies by process,
areas where the old policy said we had 'good' collections have suddenly
become areas where we have 'poor' collections: take the brick-making
industry for example.  The old policy said, rightly, that we had
hundreds of objects relating to brick-making.  But under SHIC
classification, all but a half-dozen of those objects are products -
there are a couple of brick-bats, a tile mould and a couple of bricks
made for exhibition.

SHIC also needs to be used with caution, as it isn't a list of the
'things one should have in the museum' - otherwise we'd be trying to
fill the deficit in Deep Sea Fishing equipment (but strangely, ocean-
going shipbuilding does have a history in Bucks - also, although we have
no deep-shaft mining, pit-prop technology was developed here - but that
doesn't mean we should collect shipbuilding or pit-prop design in
preference to structural concrete or home yoghurt-making technology).
SHIC is just a framework through which to view the collections.  It
highlights areas, in all periods, for which we don't have objects.  We
need secondary filters in order to highlight the real areas of priority.

The aformentioned backlog documention project (first tranch, most fields
back to 1925) has highlighted areas where we _don't_ need to collect.

The policy is explict that we don't have time or room for everything.
So in each area, it says whether active collecting, passive collecting,
or no collecting should be undertaken.  Areas where the situation means
that donations are unlikely, and purchases are needed are highlighted.
Generally, and it is re-inforced for specific areas, the problem of
storing large machinery is highlighted.  Here we undertake to
photograph, and conduct oral or video history.  The policy also
acknowleges that there are some processes which do not produce material
culture, or which produce artifacts so ephemeral that they cannot be
preserved ... here again, photography, tapes and videos are needed.
These all need little space, but huge amounts of curator time ...

The policy says, right at the beginning, that we will co-operate with a
number of named other museums.  There's no point in _us_ doing a major
oral history project on the electronics industry around High Wycombe, if
High Wycomb did one two years ago.  There's no point _us_ collecting
ephemera from the general election in Buckingham, if the Old Gaol Museum
in Buckingham is collecting it too.

It would be wonderful, if I had time for a SAMDOC type approach ... but
there isn't a team of social historians, there's me, and some wonderful
volunteers.  When I put together an exhibition, and dedicate the time to
research, the collecting policy becomes a wonderful document, but for
many of the SHIC classifications, I've only a passing knowlege, and
there's no time to do the research.

One thing I've had to argue against, to promote recent and contemporary
collecting, is the idea that Buckinghamshire County Museum should only
be collecting what is unique to Buckinghamshire.

An area of collecting which SHIC threw up is collecting the history of
our own institution.  I collected, before this exercise, the (empty!)
bottle of fizzy white wine given to the staff when we raised the target
for the new art gallery.  A predecessor collected the badges of the
Museums Association.  I have this absurd idea that museum-visiting is an
important part of the lives of the people of Buckinghamshire.
--
Pat Reynolds
[log in to unmask]
Keeper of Social History, Buckinghamshire County Museum
   "It might look a bit messy now, but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Prattchet)