Hank Burchard's suggestion that a museum might prefer to sell real military
medals rather than replicas raises more questions than it answers about what
museum experience should be and how we want viewers to think of the exhibit
contents.  There are art museums with art rental and/or sales galleries, and
here at Natural History we have mineral samples for sale. I have worked in
a military museum, and we did not sell any real souvenirs of the wars.  Why
does the concept of "history for sale" seem fundamentally different than the
sale of art and natural history, or is that just my imagination?  Does the
sale of one's subject matter in the gift shop cloud the line between going
to the mall and going to a museum?  On a practical note, might that type of
merchandise make donors think that if they give the museum family mementos
we might move the items out at clearance prices?