A truly facinating question.  (For which I do not have an answer, unnfortunately.)  It does raise some interesting ethical and legal questions about the use of our collections.

I wonder if archives might already have sorted out a solution or approach (any archivists lurking?).  I would be very interested to know what you learn.

Richard Gerrard
Registrar
Collections and Conservation Services
Heritage Toronto

South Charleston Museum South Charleston, WV wrote:

> I work for a private non-profit museum, which has in its collections
> numerous photographs of chemical and other industrial sites in the area.  As
> a result, we have had requests for collection access from lawyers, et. al.
> in search of litigation material.  Is there any established precident in the
> handling of requests of this sort?  Any information is most appreciated.
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