Don't you find this rather ironic given that one of their lawyers recently warned us about such loan "purgatory"? :-) Melanie Solomon >A recent newspaper article outlined the Smithsonian's intent to loan out >objects, on a "semi-permanent" (registrars well cringe at the >terminology!) to appropriate museums. The loans could be as much as 25 >years, with no rental fee. The intent is to cut storage costs. >My boss wishes me to find out if there is any good stuff there for a >western Massachusetts museum of history and art. I tried the (impressive) >Smithsonian's web site in hopes of finding a catalog of objects - in vain >(I didn't really expect success - if my museum hasn't put its 15,000 >objects on-line, it's a bit much to expect SI to make its 141 million >objects available.) >Long question short: any tips on finding the good stuff, short of >pestering SI curators? >Will Garrison >Collections Manager >Historic Deerfield, Inc. > >