Deaccessions

At yesterday's meeting, the Board of Trustees approved to deaccession objects from the Museum's Permanent Collection and transfer them to the National Ranching Heritage Center (NRHC) at Texas Tech University.

While doing some "Spring Cleaning," I came across a file that contained a Loan Agreement, completed by my predecessor in April 2006, loaning several pieces of oil field equipment to the NRHC. I contacted both the NRHC and my predecessor who confirmed that the materials were to be deaccessioned and then given to the NRHC; however, the process was never completed.

What is deaccession, you ask? According to the Museum Registration "bible" (The New Museum Registration Methods, edited by Rebecca Buck and Jean Allman Gilmore), deaccession is the formal change in recorded status of the object. Where accessioning is the process by which objects come into the Museum's collection, deaccessioning is the opposite of that. Once objects are deaccessioned, then they can go through a disposal process.

One should not see deaccessioning as a bad thing or even as controversial. Yes, museums are to preserve and build collections for prosperity. However, museums are living things -- missions, policies and people change which changes the institutions themselves. Objects once thought critical to a museum's mission may no longer be so after time. Or objects may be duplicated multiple times in a museum's collection and other institutions could use those items for their own collections.

According to the Museum's Collection Management Policy, items can be deaccessioned for a number of reasons, such as:

The object is no longer within the Museum’s scope or mission.
The object does not support the collecting policy of the Museum.
The object does not have clear, legal title.
The object does not support the research, education or exhibition purposes of the Museum.
The object unnecessarily duplicates other objects in the Museum’s collections.
The object requires storage or conservation resources that cannot be provided by the Museum.
The object was accessioned in error, such as tools, exhibit cases, exhibit material or cleaning supplies.
The object is a danger and hazard to museum staff, volunteers, and patrons.

The items approved for deaccessioning yesterday were all duplicates in the Museum's Permanent Collection; they are much better utilized at the NRHC.

Questions? Leave a comment!

Do you know ...

the story behind this photo?



For the past few days, I've been busy cataloguing our large photographic collection and came across this image today. Written on the back of the print is "Texon, Texas, Reagan County ca. 1926 - 1932 Texon Harmonica Band."

Whenever I come across an old image of people, particularly children, I have to stop and really look. I start to wonder about the people in the picture: Who are/were they? What were they like? What did think or do or believed? What do/would they think of now?

The image above brought up the same questions. Who were these kids, in their uniforms and hats, and shiny harmonicas? The two boys in the front hold a trophy. Did the group win a tournament? Who were the women on either side, also in their uniforms and hat, and the man in his pressed suit?

Does anyone know anything about this group? I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment or contact me at the Museum (432-683-4403).

Goodbye and Good Luck!

Today was Lauren's last day. I've mentioned Lauren in some of my previous posts. She was hired as the Archives Assistant two months after I came on board at The Petroleum Museum.

She has been my right-hand for almost a year and a half, helping with exhibits programming. She has also worked on the seemingly huge undertaking of scanning the Photographic Collection as well as making a dent in the backlog archival materials. Words fail to describe how she will be missed.





Lauren has decided to persue her photography career full-time. We wish her the best in that endeavor! Check out her website here. She even has a blog too!

Good luck, Lauren!

Emergency

Monday afternoon I was cataloguing some photographs when my boss, Kathy Shannon, the Executive Director, came into my office. "Leslie, I need to talk to you," she said while walking toward object storage in the Pit.

Remember what the Pit looked like?


The Pit houses oil field tools and equipment as well as cultural and historical objects (formerly on display in the West Wing) on a series of metal bookshelves. Also in the Pit was maintenance equipment and defunct exhibit materials. Cleaning out the Pit and moving object storage to another location has been on my list of "To Do" since I started here.

Kathy took me into the Pit that afternoon and told me that the collection objects were being threatened.

Above those bookshelves, you see, is a large piece of canvas which hangs between object storage and the pipeline airplane exhibit in the North Wing above.

The painted backdrop, backed by masonite, behind the airplane had slipped its anchors and was presumably resting precariously against non-load bearing walls.



Needless to say, this news was a shock to me. Should the backdrop fall forward, it would hit the plane. Should the backdrop fall backward, it would crush the exhibit wall behind it, possibly hitting some collection objects in that area. Should the backdrop continue to slide, the canvas floor/celing might cave in on top of the collection objects below in the Pit. None of those scenarios were good.

So, Kathy and I developed a plan: Spend Tuesday cleaning out the maintenance and exhibit materials. Use Wednesday to move the collection away from the canvas ceiling and underneath the concrete one.

Tuesday, I helped the Facilities Supervisor and his assistant clear out some wooden shelves. In the afternoon, Lauren and Whitney showed up to help. We continued to clean -- removing trash, setting aside collection objects, and sweeping. By the end of the afternoon, we were in a good place to start moving boxes and objects.



And no, it's not snowing in the Pit. That's the reflections off the dust in the air after moving, cleaning, and sweeping!

Wednesday morning, most of the Museum's staff helped shuttle boxes of collection boxes to the wooden shelves. We then moved the loose objects to tables. When we ran out of space there, we laid some on foam on the floor and even moved some shelving units to under the concrete for more storage!





Many hands made light work -- we were done in about an hour!

Now, you may see many issues in the images above: wooden shelves, objects on the floor, no gloves, etc. As this was an emergency situation, I was mainly concerned about getting the objects out of immediate harm's way. Most of those objects, such as the oil field tools and equipment, have seen worse conditions than what they are currently under. In the next few weeks, I hope to move those objects to a more permanent storage home in the Museum.