Just out of curiosity, how many railway museums have comprehensive collecting plans in place? We must refine our's annually with our parent state agency and I was looking for some examples from other railway heritage institutions to help breathe some new life into our's. For the unwashed, a collecting plan governs why you collect (i.e. "To collect, preserve and interpret the history and material culture of railroading in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania"), what you collect (i.e. PRR lanterns, Reading diesel locomotives, RGS Mears Silver Filgree annual passes), and how you collect (i.e. by gift, transfer, bequest). It also delineates what collecting gaps you wish to fill (i.e. We would to acquire an RS-3 from an anthracite road in eastern PA, or a steel mill 0-6-0 from the Pittsburgh region, etc.), and helps to filter out unwanted objects and artifacts that have no relevance to your mission.

And while we're on the same topic, can anyone share any completed deaccessioning plans? (This is a hot museum topic which will soon be covered in ARM's Railway Museum Quarterly--stay tuned.)

Anyone care to share?

K.R. Bell
RR Museum of PA

http://rrmuseumpa.org
c-kbell@state.pa.us

Orange Empire Railway Museum's collection policy is available on line. This policy talks to the acquisition, retention, and deaccession of the collection.

After years with a number of these concepts understood and various ones written down, OERM when through the process of reviewing various collection policies and creating its own. It was a long involved process because by-in and acceptance by various people was required. And there were a few compromises. How we have a managment tool to use.

Brian Norden


OERM collection polciy
bnorden49@earthlink.net

From the collection polocy of the Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources.

SPCRR Collection Goals

The SPCRR is a nonprofit, historical preservation organization dedicated to conserving the products, the technology and the memory of the Carter Brothers, a 19th century railroad carbuilder, who's factory was located in Newark California.

The Carter Brothers were closely identified with California's "Narrow Gauge" movement, and most of their products were narrow gauge. Their shops, which originally were moved from job site to job site, ultimately located along the line of theSouth Pacific Coast Railroad in Newark. They produced approximately 5,000 wooden railroad cars between 1874 and 1902.

The SPCRR has modeled the Ardenwood railroad after the South Pacific Coast Railroad's branch which once connected Newark with the neighboring community of Centerville. This branch used horses as locomotives for it entire life (1881-1909). Horses provided motive power for many trains of the late 19th century, but little of technology or history of the small agrarian railroads has been preserved or interpreted by railroad museums.

To fulfill these intereptive goals the SPCRR has set the following collection goals and priorities:

1) To collect railroad cars and other artifacts representing the entire range of equipment built by Carter Brothers.

2) To collect railroad and other artifacts relating to the South Pacific Coast Railroad, owner of the Centerville Branch, and host tothe Carter Brother's shop.

3) To collect other cars and artifacts built by other California builders, who were contemporary with and either were effected by or affected the Carters

4) To collect equipment and artifacts used other Northern California railroads.

5) To collect an equipment set appropriate to a horse drawn branch line as operated by our group.

6) To collect other equipment from other areas or eras necessary to interpret our primary goal.

7) To collect other artifacts, Railroad and non-railroad to set a historic context for our railroad



http://spcrr.org
hees@ix.netcom.com

The B&O Railroad Museum's Mission Statement can be found at the link below.

http://www.borail.org/mission.asp
kevin.r.gillespie@verizon.net

Collections management (for rolling stock) was a new idea in Savannah two years ago. An informal document which outlines the basic perameters was drafted after some breakfast meetings which I don't have handy to post here but the gist is:

Priorities are establishing a representative Central of Georgia collection first, Savannah specific collection second, Georgia collection third for "permanently accessioned" rolling stock. Among these are some interpetation-driven subcollections such as office and inspection cars, branchline mixed train, Jim Crow passenger accomodation. Some specific pieces have been targeted, some acquisitions are now under way, and some no longer exist. Defined holes in the collections will be filled by replication probably.

A non-accessioned collection of rolling stock to be used for demonstration purposes is also envisioned. Another semi-collection of stuff to use for moving stuff around and maintaining track, stuff to run on city streets, etc was more broadly envisioned.

I like to think of it as the first effort towards a rational approach. I hope it will be further refined as the organization matures in the future. Our new director has not yet had time to consider it in light of his goals and priorities.

One basic concept considered in the policy as written was the relative unimportance of the rolling stock collection in terms of the interprative mission of the museum and site as a whole. The buildings and the lives of those who worked in them are the primary focus - the rolling stock collection is an interprative tool to use in carrying out that mission, and a marketing tool to involve visitors. There is a much larger museum with great and broadly based examples of railroad technology in Duluth, GA which is doing a nice job of interpreting that part of railroad history and we don't want to use our limited resources to do the same job as Southeastern Transportation Museum.

Dave

irondave@bellsouth.net

Under review would be the best answer for the Southwest Railway Historic Society which operates the Age of Steam Museum in Dallas, Texas. When one of your most recent acquisitions is an ATSF FP45 and the name of the museum is the Age of Steam, I think the problem is pretty obvious. Although one can argue that since mainline steam still exists in China then the age of steam still exists. The lack of space is a major problem as it is not possible for us to acquire something in poor condition put a tarp over it and push it into an out of the way corner. A member recently wished to donate his caboose, but it needed to be repaired and painted. I oppposed the donation because the last thing needed was another item that arrived needing to be pinted. Happily the member had the caboose painted and it is now on display.



tcox@parknet.pmh.org

Kurt-

If your talking about the article that I think you are, you'll be reading about both our accessioned and deaccessioned materials when it comes out. To me, that article will be simply ground-breaking for our field; and I expect that it will cause a great deal of lively discussion, but its about time ;-)

Our collections policy is pushing 15 years old now, but the basics are:

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS POLICY

The mission of the Port Huron Museum of Arts and History is to encourage an appreciation of the arts and history in our community through our commitment to education, community, and heritage. The MuseumÂ’s collecting goal is to collect, preserve, exhibit, and interpret works of art and items of historical interest, particularly those of St. Clair County.

TYPES OF COLLECTIONS

A. Permanent Collection
"Objects will be assigned to the permanent collection if they have been found appropriate for a commitment by the Museum to long term care and protection, in accordance with Museum Acquisition Criteria."

B. Teaching Collection
"Objects will be assigned to the teaching collection if they are found to be relevant to the MuseumÂ’s program of interpreting art and history. Reproductions will be assigned to this collection. These objects will not be accessioned, and may be handled by students and/or the general public in the course of exhibition and teaching programs, and if damaged beyond repair, may be disposed of."

There's more, but I won't bore you, other than A for Accessioning and Deaccessioning (which is long, so stop here if your not interested):

ACCESSIONING

Definition: Accessioning is defined as the process of accepting items into the permanent collections of the Museum. All materials and objects shall be processed under procedures and policies adopted by the Board of Trustees.

a. All Museum objects shall be assigned accession numbers and shall be indexed by category, date of acquisition, and by name with suitable cross reference.

b. Collection records, including source (donor), location and subject, as well as accession files and accession book shall be kept in accordance with accepted professional standards. Duplicate copies of records will be kept in a safe place off-site. Subjects will be organized according to the system described in the book Nomenclature by Robert Chenhall.

c. Materials shall be stored in a manner to provide optimum security, accessibility and preservation.

d. Materials in need of conservation shall be conserved as soon as possible.

e. Conservation shall be performed only by qualified professionals using approved techniques and substances.

f. Materials, whether in use or in storage, shall be protected from life-shortening forces such as excessive heat, cold, humidity, dryness, dust, ultra-violet light, insects, vermin or improper handling.

g. Gift Agreements shall be made for all property received. A letter of thanks to the donor with a copy of the Gift Agreement will serve as the official receipt for the donorÂ’s purpose. The Gift Agreement will set forth an adequate description of the objects involved and the conditions of transfer (see Gift Agreement).

DEACCESSIONING

Definition: Deaccessioning is the process of removing permanently from the collections accessioned library materials and museum objects. The deaccession process shall be cautious, deliberate, and scrupulous.

DEACCESSION CRITERIA

1. The material or object is outside the scope of the charter purpose of the Museum and its collection policy.
2. The material or object is irrelevant to the purposes of the Museum.
3. The material or object lacks physical integrity.
4, The material or object has failed to retain its identity or authenticity, or has been lost or stolen and remains lost for longer than two years.
5. The material or object is duplicate and without intrinsic value.
6. The Museum is unable to preserve it properly.
7. The material or object is deteriorated beyond usefulness.
8. The material or object has doubtful potential utilization in the foreseeable future, or has accidentally been accessioned twice.

DEACCESSION PROCEDURE

a. Materials shall be deaccessioned only upon the recommendation in writing of the Director, Curator or Archivist/Librarian to the Museum Collections Committee and upon the approval of a majority of the Board of Trustees present at a regular or special meeting. The minutes shall reflect the decision.

b. If the deaccessioned material or object was purchased by the Museum, it may be disposed of in whatever manner the Museum Collections Committee and Board of Trustees deem appropriate and most beneficial to the institution. It may be sold by bid, traded, offered at a public auction, given outright, or discarded.

c. If the deaccessioned material was donated to the Museum, consideration will first be given to placing the object, through gift, exchange, or sale, in another tax exempt educational institution. Deaccessioned objects not disposed of in this manner normally will be sold at advertised public markets and only in a manner that will protect the interests, objectives and legal status of the institution.

d. The Museum does not sanction the sale or gift of deaccessioned objects to its employees, officers or trustees, or to their representatives.

e. Funds received from the sale of deaccessioned objects from the collection will be used only to benefit the collections. Proceed may not be used for general operating expenses.

DISPOSITION OF NON-ACCESSIONED MATERIALS

Definition: Non-accessioned materials are those items donated to the Museum which do not (1) fall within the collection policy guidelines, (2) are part of an acquired collection but have little or no value either monetarily or aesthetically, (3) are not worthy either by their physical state or nature to be accessioned as part of the permanent collection.

a. A list of non-accessioned materials or objects will be kept in the permanent files.

b. Recommendation for non-accession of materials will be made by the Curator or Archivist or Director to the Chairman of the Museum Collections Committee.

c. Disposal of non-accessioned material may be: (1) given by gift or exchange to another tax exempt educational institution, (2) put out for sale with funds accruing to the benefit of the collections, (3) used as study pieces, (4) destroyed, (5) used in the teaching collections. Accessioned items may be disposed into the Teaching Collection using the guidelines and criteria for Deaccessions. (6)The Museum does not sanction the sale or gift of non-accessioned items to its employees, officers of trustees, or to their representatives.

Long enough for everyone?

TJG

> Just out of curiosity, how many railway
> museums have comprehensive collecting plans
> in place? We must refine our's annually with
> our parent state agency and I was looking
> for some examples from other railway
> heritage institutions to help breathe some
> new life into our's. For the unwashed, a
> collecting plan governs why you collect
> (i.e. "To collect, preserve and
> interpret the history and material culture
> of railroading in the Commonwealth of
> Pennsylvania"), what you collect (i.e.
> PRR lanterns, Reading diesel locomotives,
> RGS Mears Silver Filgree annual passes), and
> how you collect (i.e. by gift, transfer,
> bequest). It also delineates what collecting
> gaps you wish to fill (i.e. We would to
> acquire an RS-3 from an anthracite road in
> eastern PA, or a steel mill 0-6-0 from the
> Pittsburgh region, etc.), and helps to
> filter out unwanted objects and artifacts
> that have no relevance to your mission.

> And while we're on the same topic, can
> anyone share any completed deaccessioning
> plans? (This is a hot museum topic which
> will soon be covered in ARM's Railway Museum
> Quarterly--stay tuned.)

> Anyone care to share?

> K.R. Bell
> RR Museum of PA


Port Huron Museum

tjgaffney@phmuseum.org

TJ, Rather a nice, succinct policy statement altogether. Perhaps there should be an assurance for public notice (to members) of a proposal to dispose of an object of historical value -- whether accessioned into a permanent collection or not. Boards are by no means always historically competent. The value of a compact, historically annotated accessions list cannot be overstated.

The reference to the current edition of the Chenall classification is
Blackaby, J.R., P. Greeno, and the Nomenclature Committee. 1995. The revised nomenclature for museum cataloging: a revised and expanded version of Robert G. Chenall's system for classifying man-made objects. Nashville: American Assn. State Local History Press.

Kurt, I won't bore you or other rypn.org readers with all the fine print, which the state of N.C. has to deal with acquiring, storing, displaying and retiring various artifacts. What I suspect you're after is a practical guide, and this is what the non-profit and the state have agreed upon as the test for large items, ie, rolling stock:

1. Does it fit our mission statement? That is, in a nutshell, Spencer Shops, Southern Railway, North Carolina, in that order. As is obvious, the founders grabbed what they could, but we're at a point now where we need to be more selective.

2. Do we have the resources in people, time and money to get it, preserve it, restore it, display it? It's no good if you can acquire the world and then let it rust to pieces. Besides, the public wants to see a museum--not a junkyard.

3. Would anybody really come to see it? Here's where you have to walk a fine line on what "ought" to be saved (ie, freight cars) and what is nice to save (ie, pretty office cars).

Like I said, this isn't the formal stuff, but it's the field guide, and best of all, you can explain it to folks and they can understand it.



Wrinnbo@aol.com