Much of what this article discusses would be laughable to most rail museums. Most of us don't have vast warehouses full of rolling stock and artifacts we can't display.

However, there are still things that we can learn from this essay:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2 ... e-basement

The question of how much to display and how much to keep in storage is a big one in the museum world (railroad museums being the exception!), and a number of institutions have opted to split the difference with so-called "visible storage" facilities where visitors can view everything, all at once.

The New York Times had an article on this trend back in 2001, called "Museums as Walk-in Closets":

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/08/arts/museums-as-walk-in-closets-visible-storage-opens-troves-to-the-public.html?pagewanted=1

Since it's a New York paper, the piece of course focuses on museums in New York such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New-York Historical Society, but there is also a mention of a similar facility at the Smithsonian. It's interesting to see that many of these displays were funded by a single source, the Henry Luce Foundation.

-Philip Marshall

The author of this article appears to be a bit naive, or at a minimum didn't do any adequate job of fact checking and doesn't realize that some of the art not on display was donated and the donors may have placed restrictions on how the proceeds form selling the art could be used.

It's also routine to loan out items or rotate displays

Bob H

This is also applicable to the railway museum collections not on display in the designated display barn(s). I have often heard complaints and read rants on RyPN when someone cannot have immediate or scheduled access to the storage barn, etc. at the local railway museum.



Hmmm - let's search RyPN for the number of threads that propose moving locomotives and cars around. We can also acknowledge our collective success with trades and "loans" such as the deal that found homes for the Trolleyville collection, or the recent loan of N&W 2156 under the auspices of Norfolk Southern, as well as whatever was brokered to get UP 4014 back to Cheyenne.

Wesley

My "home museum" has a large storage barn out beyond the public access area. Many of the cars and locomotives in this structure are "not ready for prime time" but have historic value that made covered storage necessary. A section of this barn is used for restoration work that's easier and safer to do without visitors in the area. One of the advantages of railroad equipment is that it is on wheels and can be moved to public display when the time comes.

I have, from time to time, had need to photograph / inspect / measure cars at various railway museums, and always make a point to writing / calling / e-mailing in advance to arrange access, and have only once been disappointed... and that was a guy with a museology background running a historical village. Go figure.

Even more maddening is the museums set up to 'tell a story' instead of showing off almost anything in their collection.
It's not a RR museum but the WW2 museum in New Orleans is one of the most maddening examples I've ever seen. It's basically a book on the war plastered over the walls with 1:1 models and dioramas. So few items from the collection are on display that it's bordering on fraud when you pay the staggering admission fee.
Like most of you, I go to a museum to see artifacts, not reproductions of them. And that museum has a downright insane amount of reproductions of items they surely must have several of in the collection. I have more original items in my personal collection than they have on display, total inside that museum. The only reason I can imagine to visiting is if you're someone who wants to see every B-17 bomber in existence. They got one there, I'll give them that. But the atrium is really the only cool display in the whole building with real stuff...
Oh yeah, all the boats in there are reproductions, too!
but the museum has a cult-like status that borders on collective insanity. If you post anything negative, you get dog-piled on really fast by their cultists.
Biggest rip-off I've ever experienced in any museum anywhere.