I agree -this is an important item to have in a collection policy.  I expect
that the actual number doesn't matter so much as being sure that something
(the number or another data field such as 'provenance') documents the
earliest time it was noted in the collection, and any circumstances you have
evidence for.  

 

The usefulness of this was apparent when I worked for a museum with a very
old collection and for various reasons some items had no numbers and/or were
no longer to be found. Unfortunately many of these were loans, and it was by
process of elimination that we had to try to figure out what reasonably
could have been an item in question. Sometimes the date of the earliest
'sighting' of an item could eliminate it from a search. e.g. an item that
was documented in the collection or just on site (whether accessioned at
that time or not) could be eliminated as an item that was part of an
incoming loan that came at a later date.  The same reasoning has also been
applied in a case where things were stolen and we could document their
existence in our museum as being prior to the dates the defendant was a
volunteer there.

 

Now 'cleaning up' yet another collection, I sometimes find something in an
envelope with a postmark which provides documentation at least of date and
return address.  I always save the envelope as documentation in the file for
whatever accession number it is eventually given.  For all of the above
reasons, then, I lean towards using an accession number for the year you can
document it to (provided you have a definitive list of all accession numbers
previously issued for that year so you don't end up with a duplicate
number).

 

Lucy Sperlin

Butte County Historical Society

Oroville, CA

 

  _____  

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Alisha Goode
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 6:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: accession numbers

 

I'd first recommend checking your collection policy to see if that
particular issue is covered.  I have worked with one collection that you
would enter the year that it was received if known, but with another
collection it was always the year that the object was accessioned.  Other
people who have been in the field longer than I may have a more definitive
point of view, but if your institution doesn't have a policy already in
place for this, then I think it would be up to your discretion.  If it's not
in the policy, you might want to consider placing it in there after this so
that continuity of policy occurs.

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 6:35 PM, Margaret Fredrickson <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

we use PastPerfect museum software. 

Ideally the first set of numbers indicates the year an object was received
and accessioned.

 

Recently I found something that had been received years ago and never
accessioned.

Do I start the accession number with the current year or with an
approximation of when it might have been received?

Peggy Fredrickson

[log in to unmask]

 





 

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