One of the more interesting display methods I've seen used by several museums is to display the "as found" condition of an artifact. I believe Britain's National Railway Museum has a wooden coach displayed that is basically a "chicken coop." I know at one time Seashore Trolley Museum had a Boston PCC car displayed on the retired trailer that once brought equipment to the museum.

Almost all railroad museums that I know have unrestored equipment around, often viewable by the public. I wonder if we are missing an interpretive opportunity. With some good signage that explains that this is how most equipment is found today, pictures of other restoration work, and maybe displaying the "as found" piece next to a restored unit could go a long way in explaining what we do. Any thoughts?

Here is the display I mentioned at Seashore
http://206.103.49.193/hicks/htm/hicks067.htm
Thanks to Frank Hicks for taking it.

I think such displays are great. Unfortunately, most of our rail museums have more items in "as-found" condition than restored displays.

There are other problems with "as found" displays.

First, only a small segment of the public will read the sign and appreciate why the artifact isn't restored. Most will wonder why the musuem hasn't restored the piece. Like it or not, we "experts" are in the minority.

Second, it's tough to convince the... shall we say, "less than visionary" people in an organization that such a display is a good idea. I've had so many people in SCRM complain because our express reefer is sitting right on the road and it's not yet restored. My usual reaction is to offer them a paint brush, which generally shuts them up, but...

I think such an "as found" display would work best if you've got two of the same thing. Have one restored and have the as-found one next to it to show the contrast. But I think that's still going to make people wonder why something isn't restored. Again, my favorite response when someone asks me why such-and-such isn't restored is to offer them a paint brush and, if necessary, a membership form with the incantation, "Many hands make light work."

Wonderful comment about why something isnt resored. We have the same problem here in Wichita, Ks. with a couple of our display items. We found and old AVI car body a number of years ago that was being used to store hay and brought it to our site and it sits near an underpass so people see it in a less than favorable condition. When someone starts complaining I do the same thing that you do here are the tools have at it or I look them in the eye and say put your money where your mouth is. Thus ends the complaining.

A better way of clarifying what restoration is would be to restore half the vehicle. Consider a sagital cut down the length of the car and one side getting cleaned, repaired, repainted, while the other remains "as found". That is an educational exhibit on several levels. What is at Kennebunk looks like an eyesore wreck placed on a wornout piece of highway junk. The British Air Museum has a recovered B24 "Liberator", stabilized, but unrepaired, as found, sitting on a simulated ocean floor. Elsewhere is the bent and charred remains of a Hawker Hurricane, found in France, pilot's remains removed. That tells the story. In the case of some equipment, like the MP54 at RRMPA, it was not an archaeologic teaching tool, but the remains of a fleet representative. It couldn't meet that criteria, so it was salvaged and scrapped. Hopefully another representative will take it's place and go under cover.

Your post reminds me of another interesting restoration philosophy, which is to restore something to an "in service" appearance. Instead of making something look "too new" this philosophy tries to accurately portray the artifact as it would have looked in service.

I first came into contact with this when I met a gentleman who restores Corvettes. He restores them exactly like GM built them. He conducted a lot of research to replicate the 15 shades of black and dark Gray GM painted the various underbody components. The paint jobs on his cars are rather bad, thin toward the bottom of the car, exactly like most Corvettes were when they built them in St. Louis. He even had little scraps of carpet thrown in the insides, as if they were left there by assembly line workers fitting the carpet in the car, just like one would have found it in the showroom. It's an interesting philosophy.