Dear List:

I am in the process of evaluating and recording our museum's photographic
collection.  As I work on this, the same question keeps coming to mind:
Does my museum truely own this image for display?  Most of our collection
dates from 1850 to 1940's, detailing maritime and town activities.  But we
only hold the photograph, not the negative.  In most cases, the photographs
were donated as part of an individual donor's collection, it was not
donated by the photographer who actually took and owned the photograph.

I remember addressing these issues in the classroom, but now I want to make
sure I am steering my institution away from any copyright infringements.

There must be mountains of books on this subject, so if any of you can
recommend one that is specific to museums and their collections, I would
appreciate it.

Thank you in advance.


Jeffory Morris
Curator
Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum
Provincetown, Massachusetts

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