Did I miss something or did the writer neglect to describe or identify the museum they’re talking about?  It matters. I am not sure what is meant by “a community attic” but I can cite and produce pictures of 100s of items that - thank God - got saved despite being things some among us might have rolled our eyes at  - at one point or another. Big museums - art museums especially - tend to be hierarchical and narrow in their sense of what’s important. And guess what - that changes.  That said, issues of redundancy matter. The key to good collecting is know what you’re there for - and if its a community-based historical org - as most museums are - then covering as much chronological and thematic subject matter as possible - recognizing that big stuff is more costly to preserve than smaller things. Strive for diversity. As to what to collect from the post WW II era - we live in an increasingly homogenized world. I am not sure anyone will worry if you don’t have artifacts that prove McDonalds had a local outlet in the 20th century. Its the things that speak to a town’s distinctive identity and that is - in a sense - a problem of social history, industrial history and anthropology as much as art, decorative arts or manuscripts. The most important thing - is to be skillfully acquisitive - try to raise money for a purchase fund for the inevitable occasions when something will pop up on the market that you must have; try to avoid relying entirely on donations and be strong enough to say “thank you but we have this kind of thing already.” Directors - often on the frontline of community relations - have a hard time saying no - so a good policy helps.  I had several curatorial jobs and consultancies one the years that involved pruning, deaccessioning and consolidating collections so sprawling that the staff couldn’t even find things. Had a situation once were I “discovered” one of the clients most prized possessions - that “we couldn’t find for year” in a storage maze of chaos. It should NEVER get that bad. Dozens of sympathy cards from a funeral of someone NOT of major historical significance sounds like a problem. Sampling is good. I might go through the pile and pick a couple best ones. 

William Hosley
Terra Firma Northeast
Cultural Resource Marketing & Development Consultant
860-944-8349 
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On Jul 6, 2016, at 6:45 PM, charlene martin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Ashley, I'd like to elaborate on what Marc said. I would only keep the ledgers of locally/nationally prominent people only. I know this goes against postmodernism practices, but you do have limited space.

On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 5:47 PM, Marc A Williams <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Ashley,
 
Prudent modern collections stewardship emphasizes that collections should support the mission of the museum.  While this can be quite broad, most institutions do not want to become a community attic.  Thus, wise institutions write their mission statement to exclusively support objects that they want in their collections to forward their objectives.  This then leads to tightened collections policies that provide specific guidance on what is, and is not, appropriate for the collections.  Clearly, no museum, not even the largest and most respected, can collect everything, so limitations must be implemented based upon the mission and collections policies.  You and everyone else will soon run out of space if this is not done.  Imagine your collections in 100 years - or perhaps more prudently in 1,000 years.  Will you have the funds and space to harbor and care (remember this is an ethical and legal responsibility) for millions of objects?  Undoubtedly not.  So, if you start now, you can eliminate unimaginable headaches for future museum personnel.  These are just my observations based upon the inner workings of hundreds of smaller museums.  
 
Marc

From: Ashley LaVigne
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 5:06 PM
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Sympathy Scrap Books/Funeral Books

Hello Everyone!

I recently started a new position at a small county museum and our director has been in the habit of accepting just about everything that walks in the door. I am attempting to establish a more rigid collections policy and recently we received a box of donations that contained several scrapbooks that were full of sympathy cards and a few funeral ledgers.

I am curious as to how other establishments handle these items. Do you keep them? Send them back? Or dispose of them? My boss is of the mind that we should keep them, but our space is limited and I feel that while they are certainly special, they simply do not belong as apart of our collection.

I appreciate anyone's thoughts on this and I look forward to any responses I receive!

Thank you in advance for any advice you can offer!

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