Exhibition Records

[Kirsten J Reinhardt]

 
Dear Group,
Does anyone have a retention schedule and/or list of exhibition related documents that we are required to save? I am about to sort through and then transfer 40+ boxes of documents related to the exhibitions history of the Stamford Museum into a searchable vertical file. I welcome all recommendations for retention of documents/photographs, CD’s, etc.  Thank you.

 
Kirsten R Brophy
Curator of Collections & Exhibitions

Stamford Museum & Nature Center

 

[Becca DuBey]

Hello Kirsten,

yes, I have worked in several museums that save all their exhibit materials and records of what was on exhibit.  We had a file into which all the records were stored, and each object was recorded as having been on exhibit in their own specific file, even if it was a notation in the location file.  We also kept paper copies of the exhibit labels and research that had been conducted.  We may have filed the actual labels themselves, but that required a lot of space, so a paper copy was usually kept instead.  Today, I used Past Perfect Museum software to record all our exhibits, so paper records have become obsolete.  We also keep exhibit installation photographs.

Becca DuBey, Curator, Sauk County Historical Society

[Shannon Lindridge]

Kirsten–

Check out the Metropolitan Museums’ Thomas J. Watson Library http://libmma.org/portal/museum-archives/

The Met has started to make  some of their  institutional archives available to the public; some online.  I don’t see actual exhibition files, just a list, but they may be a go to source for what to include.

At the institution I work at, I have yet to tackle the culling of old exhibition files.

 

Good luck!

 

Shannon Lindridge, registrar

[Lea Edgar]

I would also be very interested in seeing an existing retention schedule from another museum. Records management here has been very haphazard in the past and I would like to implement a proper system. Having something to work off of is always helpful. Better not to reinvent the wheel! If anyone would like to share, it would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Lea Edgar, Librarian/Archivist, Vancouver Maritime Museum

[Anita Merritt]

I am also in the process of sorting out records (and entering them in musarch).  We decided to sort our records in three ways, our living collections, our non living collections and our collection of exhibits.   As such, I am keeping records, evaluations and pictures of exhibits (past, present and in the process) on file in a searchable data base for future reference.  I also have a file for half baked exhibits that never quite got off the ground.  You never know when you will try to build another similar exhibit or would like to improve one.  The records are handy for that.  And computers are much easier to search than physical files.  I am linking physical files to the electronic files as necessary, such as blue prints and schematics etc.  Seems to be working well for us; but then, we only have a 20 year back log with many scanty records from the past.

Anita Merritt, Collections Manager, Headwaters Science Center, MN

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