If you liked the Arabia, check out the steamboat Bertrand exhibit at Blair,
Nebraska, north of Omaha.  The Bertrand hit a snag on the Missouri River in
the 1860s, and sank in shallow water.  The cargo was salvaged and is all on
exhibit.  The visitor center is located just a few hundred yards from the
site of the sinking.  It's well worth the trip.

>>     In my experience, the debate over whether to keep original
>>     packaging and dispose of contents has generally resulted in
>>     [snip] the contents are stored separately from
>>     the original packaging and safely isolated from the rest of the
>>     collection.

This is what we do with our collection of pharmaceuticals (solids only)
Using surgical gloves, we carefully separate the pills from the bottles and
zip-loc bag them before storage.  This allows the pills to be viewed w/o
direct handling, and keeps bottle closures from being damaged from repeated
opening.  The bottles and their pills are stored together as a set and
cross-referenced.

HBC

****************************************
Henry B. Crawford        Curator of History
[log in to unmask]     Museum of Texas Tech University
806/742-2442           Box 43191
FAX 742-1136             Lubbock, TX  79409-3191
***** "Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead!!" *****