> The college is
> a 501(c)(3) entity.  All of the collections were
> given to the college.  I asked the college's legal
> council if it was his understanding that the college
> is responsible to hold the collections in the
> public's trust and for the stewardship of the
> collections.  His response was, "I'm assuming that's
> true, although those are the words of a professional
> organization and not the law.  As a part of the
> college, the museum is obligated to do what
> nonprofit charities registered under IRC 501(c)(3)
> do.  In other words, any property belonging to the
> college (such as the museum collections) are to be
> used in furtherance of our charitable, religious, or
> educational purposes."  I interpret his answer to
> say that "holding our collections in the public's
> trust" are the words of the American Association of
> Museum and not what the law says.

I am sure your college's legal counsel is correct.

Since the collections were donated to the college, the
college is only obligated, legally, to use the
collections in the futherance of the mission of the
college. They are not legally obligated to hold them
as a public trust, UNLESS, they specifically choose to
do so, either by a resolution of the Board of Trustees
or by forming a separate 501(c)(3) as you suggest.

Let me tell you about an unfortunate situation that
happened in Pittsburgh around 1980.

A gentleman died and provided, as a bequest, a large
stamp and coin collection to Pittsburgh's Carnegie
Institute. It was claimed that this stamp and coin
collection was the third largest of its type in the
world.

The intent of the deceased gentleman was that Carnegie
Institute would display this collection to the public.
The Carnegie Institute Board of Trustees had other
ideas. They decided to sell-off the collection,
piece-by-piece (sort-of like selling-off The Carnegie
Museum's famous dinosaur collection bone-by-bone!!!).

The family of the deceased gentleman was quite upset
with this decision. However, the stamp and coin
collection was now the legal property of Carnegie
Institute, to dispose as the Institute saw fit.

The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania was
also quite upset with this decision. At that time,
they operated a small museum a few blocks away from
Carnegie Institute, in the Pittsburgh civic,
educational, and medical neighborhood of Oakland.
Today, the Historical Society operates a much larger
museum on the edge of Downtown.

The Historical Society offered to renovate the
basement of their small museum building in order to
display the stamp and coin collection to the public.
When Carnegie Institute refused to consider this
alternative, the Historical Society challenged
Carnegie Institute in court, on this matter.

In the end, there was a settlement. Carnegie Institute
agreed to maintain any stamp or coin that had some
significance to Western Pennsylvania; these were
transferred from Carnegie Museum to Cernegie Library.
However, as Carnegie Institute did have legal
ownership of the stamps and coins, they were still
free to sell-off the rest of the collection.

So, due to short-term thinking on the part of Carnegie
Institute Trustees, Pittsburgh lost the third largest
stamp and coin collection in the world!

gaw

--- Ken Mark <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:59:25 -0500 
From: "Ken Mark" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] interpretation of 501(c)(3) 
To: [log in to unmask]

> Dear friends,
>  
> I asked a similar question to this one last week and
> I thank those who responded.  This week, I need to
> frame the question more tightly since I am still
> conflicted with the list-serv's responses and what I
> am facing from the college's legal council.
>  
> I am the Director of a museum that has been opened
> for 6 ½ years.  It is a Natural History museum with
> 10,000 square feet of space with African and North
> American mammal collections, plus collections of
> insects, bird eggs (over 500 clutches), bird,
> geology, shell, herpetology and Native American
> collections.  We are a part of a college, not a
> corporation on our own.  The museum opened two years
> before I became Assistant Director/Education
> Coordinator (I was a public school teacher for 30
> years prior to that).
>  
> At that time, the college's understanding of a
> museum was simple.  'We will open the doors and
> people will come'.  They knew nothing about the
> museum industry especially its legal and ethical
> standards.  I became director 1 ½ years ago and
> began attending conferences and workshops.  Through
> these experiences I became aware that I had many
> problems and issues to get resolved.  The major one
> was, how was I going to get the administration to
> understand what it will take for us to begin to get
> on track and begin to do the things we should have
> been doing from the beginning.
>  
> I chose to start by trying to get them to understand
> the legal and ethical issues of "holding our
> collections in the public's trust".  The college is
> a 501(c)(3) entity.  All of the collections were
> given to the college.  I asked the college's legal
> council if it was his understanding that the college
> is responsible to hold the collections in the
> public's trust and for the stewardship of the
> collections.  His response was, "I'm assuming that's
> true, although those are the words of a professional
> organization and not the law.  As a part of the
> college, the museum is obligated to do what
> nonprofit charities registered under IRC 501(c)(3)
> do.  In other words, any property belonging to the
> college (such as the museum collections) are to be
> used in furtherance of our charitable, religious, or
> educational purposes."  I interpret his answer to
> say that "holding our collections in the public's
> trust" are the words of the American Association of
> Museum and not what the law says.
>  
> Is this correct?  The museum has significant
> environmental issues that are affecting the
> collections.  Is it the college's legal or ethical
> obligation to correct the temperature and RH
> problems in the museum?  I have requested, as a
> capital budget expense for 2007-08, a separate HVAC
> system for the museum to get our environment under
> control.  I need to know if legally, we need to do
> this or ethically need to do this. 
>  
> Any insights, especially to the legal versus ethical
> issue of this situation, will be greatly
> appreciated. 
>  
> Kenneth D. Mark
> Director of the Oakes Museum
>  
> Messiah College
> One College Ave. Box 3029
> Grantham, PA 17055
>  
> Telephone: 717-691-6082
> FAX: 717-691-6046
> Email: [log in to unmask]


gaw

Glenn A. Walsh
Electronic Mail - < [log in to unmask] >
NEWS - Astronomy, Space, Science:
< http://buhlplanetarium.tripod.com/#news >
Author of History Web Sites on the Internet --
* Buhl Planetarium, Pittsburgh: 
  < http://www.planetarium.cc > 
* Adler Planetarium, Chicago: 
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* Astronomer & Optician John A. Brashear: 
  < http://johnbrashear.tripod.com > 
* Andrew Carnegie & Carnegie Libraries: 
  < http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc > 
* Duquesne Incline cable-car railway, Pittsburgh: 
  < http://www.incline.cc >

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