Marcia,

As a former museum blacksmith and researcher in industrial archaeology
and early technology I have a few perspectives on this.

Sometimes the small scraps from a historic blacksmith shop can be
diagnostic. Just look up the work of John D. Light and Henry Unglik
from Parks Canada:

(Light, John D., Henry. Unglik, and Parks Canada. A Frontier Fur Trade :
Blacksmith Shop, 1796-1812. Ottawa: National Historic Parks and Sites
Branch, Parks Canada, Environment Canada, 1987.)

Or the papers and books by Dr. Robert B. Gordon of Yale University (My
much younger self actually shows up in "The Texture of Industry: An
Archaeological View of the Industrialization of North America")

So, as far as the blacksmith shop and scap goes - if you do not have a
former worker from the site then get a knowledgable blacksmith or
Industrial archaeologist to go through that stuff with you - videotape
and document them onsite - that way you have an oral history /
reference that you can use later. Yes, catalog the representative and
diagnostic pieces but remember that scrap piles of iron are one of the
functional and visual hallmarks of such a shop. Don't get too anal
about the small or non-diagnostic pieces of scrap. Anything not
cataloged leave in a pile by the shop as was done historically.
Sometimes Industrial sites are cleaned up too much and look rather
like parks with big equipment and building sitting near the picnic
tables. The most evocative and informative industrial heritage sites
appear as if the workers had just left for lunch.

As far as your replacement parts and machines go - I would recommend
the usual cataloguing on paper or database but also mark the pieces
and machines in several spots  - use steel stamps and stamp in the
accession number / date of aquistion / and your museum's name. This
will ensure that the "hallmark" will ID these pieces as such. At one
museum I worked at ALL reproductions were stamped with a year date,
and given an accession number that started with an R. You may consider
a similar system for your working machines and replacement parts.

Yes this may take time but it is also a project that you can develop a
consistent system for and then enlist volunteers to accomplish (maybe
even a good introductory project for nearby students who want to learn
about museums?)

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, CA



On 11/27/07, Marcia McLean <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello:
>
> The following questions came to me from a mining museum that is situated
> on the actual mine site. I thought that perhaps others working in
> industrial museums would have some helpful suggestions.
>
> Our museum is unique in that many artifacts in our care are still useful
> in restoration and upkeep (within their intended purpose).  How are we
> to keep these artifacts marked, and tracked?
>
> Many of our machines and structures require specific pieces of equipment
> often from our collection, but sometimes obtained through second hand
> sales situations, we often find ourselves wondering: what if, in fifty
> years we're not here and someone stumbles on to this piece (actually
> obtained from an outside source) and mistakes it for a period piece,
> native to our museum?
>
> Piles of Scrap?
> Our museum is different than many museums which exist in a single
> building, we have 74 acres of land much of it is covered in artifacts,
> ranging from pieces of rebar to our four story tipple to five hundred
> pound coal cars to our collection of 100 carbide lamps and over twenty
> buildings.  Now we are dealing with the task of recording, and
> cataloguing the artifacts from the Blacksmith's shop, the fact is that
> there are so many artifacts up there that to mark each piece would
> require a database of its own.  Also this process, which would require
> an enormous amount of time, would likely be useless, as many of the
> artifacts are small metal fragments many of which would fit into the
> same category, for example: 55 pieces of grizzly bar between 11 and 15
> cm.  Do you have any suggestions on approaching the topic of making a
> meaningful and useful categorization for this project?  Might it be
> useful to have a function group and a parts group??
>
> Thanks for any suggestions/solutions!
> Marcia
> ___________________________________________
> Marcia McLean, MA
> Director, Advisory Services
> Acting Director, Operations
> Alberta Museums Association
>
> 9829.103 Street
> Edmonton, Alberta   T5K 0X9
> PH: 780.424.2626 x.222
> FX: 780.425.1679
> EM: [log in to unmask]
> WB: www.museumsalberta.ab.ca
>
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