First off, what is an "obscure donor"??? An obscure artifact in a donation
possibly, but not its donor! I'll assume that was inadvertent phraseology
but it did set off my elitism alarm.

How do you know that "many people are interested in KNOWING that an
institution cares enough to credit even obscure donors."  Maybe not "many"
but "some" because they've told me so by inquiring about how we credit
things before they agree to make their donation and, somehow, they do seem
to be the ones with the more obscure artifacts in their donations.  Go
figure.

While donor identification isn't the most important piece of information on
a label, it not only gives the donor his due it shows that the institution
has recorded where its collection items came from.  No small task for many
small volunteer run local history museums.  I also include artifact
inventory numbers (why I have to deal with inventory numbers as well as
accession numbers is a long story unique to this organization that I won't
bore you with now) in the same small type below the text of object labels.
It's only for my own convenience in identifying artifacts without having to
open the case and handle them to find their numbers when
visitors/researchers request additional information.  If that's clutter, so
be it.

Finally, I've always looked at who donated items in exhibits - even before I
entered the profession or even had any great interest in museums.  In local
museums, it tells me who the museum's supporters are and if it's anyone I
might know.  It lets me know whether the artifact is part of the museum's
collections or on loan from other individuals or institutions.

Does everyone need all this information?  Nope, but look at how many don't
even read the labels we labor over so diligently!

RT

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Dill [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, September 18, 2000 11:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: citations for artifacts


David said, in part, "... many people are interested in KNOWING that an
institution cares enough to credit even obscure donors. "  How do you know
that piece of information?  Or is it just an opinion?

I usually tell donors in a history museum context that (who used the object
and how) is more important to the visitor than (who gave it).  The pro-donor
label folks may be right, though, that the investment in label space and
"clutter" is worth it in terms of encouraging and recognizing donors.
Personally, I find my self glossing right over the donors names in museum
labels because I honestly don't care about that - I want to know about the
object and how it relates to the topic of the exhibit.

Chris Dill

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