Hello all,

We just received a fairly large collection of mid-20th
century ladies hats.

Many of these hats came to us in hat boxes, but the
problem is that 2-4 hats are inside each box.  Most of
them cannot be authenticated as "THE" hat that came in
the box, because labels don't match, etc.

I am planning to remove the hats from the boxes and
place them in acid-free storage boxes.  But what do I
do with the hat boxes themselves?

What do you do at your museum?  Do you accession the
empty boxes separately and take up double the storage
space?  Or do you pitch them?  Does it matter if you
can match the hat up with the correct box or not?  Do
"orphan" boxes matter?

There are quite a few boxes in this particular
collection -- so we aren't talking about one or two.
Storage space -- like always, everywhere -- is
limited.

I also have this question about shoes that are or
aren't in their original boxes.  Do the boxes
themselves matter?  Usually if the boxes are
identified with a local department store, I have been
keeping them and accessioning them as their own
artifacts (that goes for shoes, hats, clothing boxes,
etc).  But if the box comes from a major department
store that could have been purchased in town or across
the country, do I want to keep that?

Incidentally, I can't ask the donor.  She is suffering
from dementia in a nursing home, and the hats were
brought in by her son, who has no more information to
provide...

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Kim Kenney