OXFORD COUNTY MUSEUM SCHOOL

 

 

Hi Genevieve,

 

A few years ago our museum had a similar issue.  A donor requested that his
fond be transferred to the local museum as we had moved to a town further
away.  Initially, our museum was a better fit, as it was school
correspondence and we are a museum school.  Our move to anouther township
prompted the donor to ask if the fond could be moved to the closer museum of
that township.  

 

The curator of the other museum and I decided to take this as an opportunity
to highlight the collection of letters by doing a transfer with a reporter
present and make a nice story about it.  The letters in the fond had been
received by the donor while he was in the hospital being treated for polio.


 

It turned out to be a great story and experience.  The story was picked up
by other local newspapers and the receiving museum did an exhibit on the
letters that was very well attended.  As the sending curator, I attended and
was well thought of for initiating the exchange.   It all turned out well,
but it required some careful control to prevent hard feelings from some
outsiders from taking over.

 

Good luck!

 

Jennifer

 

Jennifer Beauchamp

Curator

Box 232, Ingersoll ON

N5C 3K5

 

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Genevieve Carter
Sent: August-26-15 2:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Return of Donated Items

 

Hello!

    Four years ago our museum was given a small collection of World War
II-related artifacts (medals, letters, photographs and a uniform) by a
daughter of their original owner.  This woman has recently died and her
siblings have come forward claiming that she had not been authorized by the
rest of the family to donate their father's belongings to us. She was not
the executor of her father's estate. They would like to have the medals
returned to the family, as it had always been their intention to donate them
to another museum.  

    Has anyone on the list had to deal with a situation like this? Our
collections policy states that we do not return artifacts to donors (or
descendents), but their acceptance had been based on the assumption that the
donor had the right to donate in the first place. 

    We have a number of World War II medals in the collection, so returning
them to the family would not impinge on the breadth of the collection, but
we are concerned about the message that this might send to the community if
word gets out: "If you cause a big enough fuss, they'll give you your stuff
back."

    Thanks for any insight you can offer.

 

Genevieve Carter

Huronia Museum

Midland, Ontario

 

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