I’m looking for advice on an unsolicited donation I just received. The director of my museum was sent a box of video and audio cassettes of oral histories of Jewish veterans taken by a young man for his Eagle Scout project. Unfortunately it seems that he did not have the veterans sign releases. While the likelihood of anyone making a stink about us using the oral histories without releases is slim, I would still prefer to have the signed releases.
I was planning to write the young man an acknowledgement letter thanking him for his gift and explaining how in order to make use of his project the Museum needs signed releases from the participants, and include a copy of a standard release for him to pass on to the participants (or offer to send the releases to the participants myself if he would be willing to provide me with their contact info). Before I did this I wanted to see if anyone else out there had any suggestions….
Pamela Elbe
Collections Manager and Archivist
National Museum of American Jewish Military History
1811 R St. NW, Washington DC 20009
p: 202.265.6280 x104
f: 202.462.3192
Don’t miss our new exhibition, Reconnaissance and Recollection: Military and Civilian Photographs from World War II—the photographs of Sy Weinstein.