Dear Peter and Jane:

Thank you for your responses and for clarifying what I thought I was
reading.  I'm liking this ability to have the kind of exhange this list
provides where we can share opinions and experiences.

To clarify one more thing.  Living history sites, at least the ones I've
seen, don't "hide" their original artifacts from the public any more
than a static museum does with their storage areas.  Reproductions are
used (I do mean used) rather than originals for obvious reasons.  The
originals in storage are available to researchers, and if he/she asks, a
member of the public can probably see the storage; as is the case in a
static museum.  In fact where I worked we had an advertised Behind the
Scenes day where the public was given tours of the storage.

And yes living history sites are under the general heading of museum as
are zoos, aquariums, etc.

Thank you for your input.

Jerrie

Peter Rebernik wrote:
>
> Dear Jerrie,
> nice, nice the question: "have you ever worked in a museum, or have you
> seen a museum's storage?" and the statement: "sound like they feel a museum
> has a public obligation to show all artefacts" ....
> One: I was the director of a museum with about 30.000 objects and 200.000
> square yards (technology) and of a small museum (200 objects and 20.000
> squ.yards - art museum) and work for many different museums.
> Second: Museums should not show ALL their artefacts, but they should not
> REPLACE them with copies.
>
> regards, my dear,
>
> Peter

Jane Thomson wrote:
>
Jerrie - regarding your question about who is putting forward the
pro-originals arguments; first, I think you've put a word in our mouths
that
was never there; namely "ALL". No one, as far as I've seen, has ever
suggested a museum has an obligation to show ALL its artifacts, that's
plainly ridiculous. We're talking original versus reproduction, not
percentages or numbers. Secondly, I'm a former chief curator of a
provincial
museum system with about 25 years in the business. Yes, I've seen museum
storage facilities...quite a few of them. We spend a fair amount of
money on
them, don't we? Is this money spent so that we can keep them away from
the
public?