Don't you find this rather ironic given that one of their lawyers recently
warned us about such loan "purgatory"?  :-)

Melanie Solomon


>A recent newspaper article outlined the Smithsonian's intent to loan out
>objects, on a "semi-permanent" (registrars well cringe at the
>terminology!) to appropriate museums.  The loans could be as much as 25
>years, with no rental fee.  The intent is to cut storage costs.
>My boss wishes me to find out if there is any good stuff there for a
>western Massachusetts museum of history and art.  I tried the
(impressive)
>Smithsonian's web site in hopes of finding a catalog of objects - in vain
>(I didn't really expect success - if my museum hasn't put its 15,000
>objects on-line,  it's a bit much to expect SI to make its 141 million
>objects available.)
>Long question short: any tips on finding the good stuff, short of
>pestering SI curators?
>Will Garrison
>Collections Manager
>Historic Deerfield, Inc.
>
>