Our historical society has just been given an extremely large farm toy collection with the stipulation that all boxes must be retained and stored archivally. This creates not only a storage problem but also raises the cataloging questions of 1) do we match up the catalog number of the toy with that of the correct matching container? and 2)how do organize the storage area – original containers seperate or next to the toys they came in?
Sometimes there is value in having the items displayed together because of the information found on the original box.
What are the thoughts of other archivists and curators?
