--- Lori Allen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> This topic has come up many times in my Graduate classes.  Simply put, it
> is unethical for a museum employee to collect personally what he or she is
> involved in collecting for the museum.  So you must either give up your
> hobby, or keep working outside the field.  Some museums now actually
> require "non competing" clauses signed by employees.

While I can agree with this, I do think there is a limit to how much stuff that
museums can have and reasonably, should have.

For example, say a collector has a nice collection of projectile points, all of
which are well know styles that museums have plenty of examples. If that person
gets a degree in archaeology and wants to work in a museum, should s/he have to
give up the collection so as not to compete with the museum? I don't think so
nor do I think it is unethical to keep a collection in a situation like that.

If the items a collector is collecting like ephemera or camera equipment which
there are plenty of good collections in museums all over the place, why
shouldn't a collector keep collecting? Obviously if an item turns out to be
rare and should be in a museum, I think any collector that works for a museum
or not, should turn it over (or at least sell it at a reasonable price) to the
museum.

Personally, I'd rather see items in the hands of devoted collectors who take
care of them than locked away in a museum storage vault never to see the light
of day. Now saying that, I don't like the rampant antiques trade that is
currently going on but I do think there is value in learning how to be a good
collector. I should also point out that many museums either got started or got
their collections from collectors. Such museum snobbery is just hurting us in
the long run.

Deb

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