I work as Curator of a museum that includes both an outdoor museum village
and a carousel. The museum used to put sponsors' brass plaques and heritage
designation plaques on the old buildings. I discouraged the practice and we
now have a central donor wall at our main entrance where we moved our
opening (1971) large bronze plaque, and also have our new volunteer long
service acknowledgement (We have had several volunteers for over 25 years
each!). The next step is to move the brass plaques from sponsors that are
still on buildings. The key argument I used was that village is SUPPOSED to
be correct for the 1925 time period (officially 1890-1925 but practicality
in terms of authenticity limits us to 1925 in the Curator's view) so that
modern commemorative plaques are out of period and therefore contravene the
policy statement "with the greatest authenticity possible".

A memorial bench for a volunteer who had died:  I researched and found 1920s
brass plaques in a local church on a pew and a chair. I negotiated with the
wife who was sponsoring the bench. The plaque, in traditional brass (not
plastic or aluminum), with engraved black paint filled lettering, is inset
(to prevent snagging on clothing) into the replica 1920s bench and was
phrased in a way so as to be time period neutral. As I recall it says "In
Loving Memory of Bill Anderson" and deliberately does not give a birth or
death date as the death date would fall outside the time period of the
museum.

We have named other areas as well. Our 1993 carousel pavilion, which houses
a rebuilt and operating 1912 C.W. Parker Carousel (#119) is named the Don
Wrigley Pavilion. He was the chairman of the society that bought and rebuilt
the carousel, and then donated it to Burnaby Village Museum.

The reading room in our archives was named after a recently deceased long
time local historical society member.

The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada received a donation from
General Motors and renamed their front 'court' after this sponsor. The CWM
now often incorporate it into their address. I do not know what they will do
when they move to their new museum building in 2004.

Colin Stevens
Curator
Burnaby Village Museum
Burnaby, BC, Canada

----- Original Message -----
From: Georganne Sisco <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: January 12, 2001 06:10
Subject: Re: More on Naming Opportunities


Thanks for the lengthy response. Perhaps I need to clarify the original
query. The museum has a development staff, a non-profit friends group
and an endowment. We are currently beginning our second capital
campaign. We are specifically interested in finding out how other
historic sites have dealt with the issue of naming galleries, rooms,
parts of their grounds, etc. as recognition for significant gifts.
Essentially, do you put a company name on a gallery wall in a historic
structure?
Thanks in advance for all advice you can pass along. You can respond to
my address or you can e-mail my director directly at this address:
[log in to unmask]

Thank you.

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