Donating your finds

[alabama11]

Posting photos to treasurenet is the most humane thing to do as is will be there and if the county is identified it has some provenience.
Many museums become over loaded with relics and as time goes on they are forced to sell them to maintain operational costs and free up space in the basement. Curation at a state facility also can have costs so they in many cases accept no relics free of a curation fee which is a yearly amount.

What i had hoped to do is donate some finds to a local library or two where they could have a display case for students to gain insight an appreciation for history.

 

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[against the wind]

Well, this post has a lot of good views and experiences. If I donate something to a museum or historical society, I would do so because I would think someone else would enjoy viewing it, especially if it has an interesting back story.
I must say,, if I was getting permissions because of donations, I have a couple of buckets they can have.
Lol

 

[Tom_in_CA]

...Many museums become over loaded with relics .....

Too bad. They should thus build bigger museums. Isn't that clear ? Don't have enough money/budget to develop this team of builders and persons to snap to your attention ? Well too bad, eh ?

..... and donate money of course.

And if it's a private or church run place, the *of course* it's all a ruse to solicit donations. How do we know ? By their lack of instant answers. Tsk tsk, we all know money grows on trees to pay for their facilities, operations, etc.... So the acceptance of a donation is strictly greed, ulterior motives, and was the primary cause in the first place, eh ?

 

[beerguy]

I was ghost towning in an area near me back in the day, and found a key fob from an old hotel that had burned down in 1920. The town I was in was semi-ghost, it is a fraction of what it was at the turn of the century. The school is the only brick building in town, and they turned it into a museum.
I donated the key fob to them, as they had no artifacts from the hotel except pictures.
It is displayed on the wall, with a nice 'Donated by..' at the bottom with my name.

It still makes me proud.

 

[Truth]

I like how it says on the coin machine "or would you like to donate"....Ahhhh NOPE.


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[FFFPatriot]

I'm gonna start donating my finds funds to those poor people holding them worded cardboard signs at Walmart.
Some of those motorhomes and trailers that they have with out of state license plates that are parked at the far end of the parking lots look like they need a lot of work.

 

[CASPER-2]

maybe a west coast thing - in new England - they cant get enough - as long as it is fresh and they don't have a ton of already
Im not gonna bring a handful of common arrows in when they have 100s - my Cape cod display is unique - they say the kids really love to see stuff found from the ocean - and if I get something awesome - they will add it - they made the cases especially for my stuff
They are building a small Rev war museum in RI - and I will be "loaning" them a few items when it is completed
and few towns over they are making a small area related museum and sent them a pic of what I got and they are excited cause they
don't as yet have any thing like what I have - only wish I had not sold a bunch of the stuff when I was in my teens cause display I could have
offered them would have been huge
usually best thing to do is write up a contract - stating - like Tom said - for display and its on loan - usually you give a time period
for 2-3 yrs or until they are tired of it and then its to be returned to you -- unless its items yu don't really care about
musket balls and pieces of colonial stuff with no monetary value - pottery shards - pieces of colonial buckles - plain flatbuttons etc
I have boxes of this stuff and told my GF where to offer that stuff when I die
college archeological depts. will take stuff like that sometimes

And this is EXACTLY why museums are increasingly not accepting donations nowadays (how "rude", eh?) And this is EXACTLY why stipulations are not allowed any longer on donations (how rude, eh ?). Heaven forbid that someone should be riled, eh ? Heaven forbid the instant recall and display and answer shouldn't be immediately forthcoming, eh ?

 

[lockster99]

I didn't read where anyone asked for a "snappy answer".......read it twice....might have missed it. Sorry if I did.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

... I donated the key fob to them, as they had no artifacts from the hotel except pictures.
It is displayed on the wall, with a nice 'Donated by..' at the bottom with my name....

maybe a west coast thing - in new England - they cant get enough - as long as it is fresh and they don't have a ton of already

yes. I did not mean to imply that an md'rs donation will NEVER get displayed. My friends and I here have stuff on display at museums. But it's usually cases of museums that are just starting out (and ... yes ... need more displays). Or if later after everything is set up and in motion: Something truly astounding. Or if you have some "in" with the museum (as happened @ one of my displays where I did some "name-dropping" to get a Spanish reale in with their displays).

.... usually best thing to do is write up a contract - stating - like Tom said - for display and its on loan - usually you give a time period
for 2-3 yrs or until they are tired of it and then its to be returned to you -- ...

Casper, read my post #11 on this thread. More and more museums nowadays are no longer entering into such "on loan" or "must be displayed" stipulations.

 

[lockster99]

I've donated several items now to our local museum. Not sure if they will ever be on display but was told it was items they were looking for , for a future display. So, I'm good with it.
Worked out well for me also. I now detect for the museum, city streets being torn up. Great relationship and because of getting to know the museum personnel.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I didn't read where anyone asked for a "snappy answer".......read it twice....might have missed it. Sorry if I did.

The word "snappy" wasn't used. Nor was a description of the time allowed for the recipient to reply given. But .... the tone , to me, seemed to imply:

"I walked in, I asked a question, the present person on duty couldn't answer. Hence how rude is that ??".

Perhaps I am inferring too much. But as an A) museum worker, and B) volunteer worker/organizer at a skid row soup kitchen ministry (that accepts donations of clothing, food, etc...), I deal first hand with these things. So it just sort of struck me wrong. Believe it or not, those places (museums, churches, etc...) that accept donations, are dealing with scores of people, and scores of issues , scores of come & go volunteers and staff, and scores of donations. So while YOURS AND MY'S donation seems "front and center for attention" (and we expect that 2 yrs. later, the current person on staff manning a desk should know what we're talking about), Just isn't always reality.

... They told him they have no idea where they are ... They are on my Crap list now

... They should have been able To say ....

 

[boogeyman]

Think about loaning or donating to schools! You don't have to deal with the holier than though museum people etc. etc. I donated my insect collection, shark jaws collection & a large sea shell collection to my old high school when I went over seas. Couldn't believe 17 years later they still had display cases in the halls and lo & behold my collections were still displayed! I hope a bunch of kids have looked at them and had a chance to see stuff they'll probably never see except on the web the way the world is going. Put your stuff where it's appreciated and young minds are forming.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

... I now detect for the museum, city streets being torn up. Great relationship and because of getting to know the museum personnel.

Yup. Exactly the reason to get involved in historical societies, docent desk-time for museums, donate items, write articles for historical quarterlies, etc... Amazing what doors it opens, name-dropping and aura of respect it brings. Fox guarding the hen houses, eh ?

 

[lockster99]

 

[foiler]

As I get older I've found myself letting loose tidbits of info that have been instrumental to what success I've had. So here we have a question about donating finds to museums. Most of you will read these posts focused on the subject and leave it at that. What was revealed here is something I've used in research for years. The fact that historical societies have tons of interesting stuff sitting in storage that will never see the light of day. Among the lot are photo's, letters, ledgers, journals and diaries. I will leave it there.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

..... What was revealed here is something I've used in research for years. The fact that historical societies have tons of interesting stuff sitting in storage that will never see the light of day. Among the lot are photo's, letters, ledgers, journals and diaries. I will leave it there.

I'll expand it there: Very few of them are going to let man-off-the-street come in and browse their back-room file cabinets and such. So to get carte-blanche to the stuff that you're referring to: Become a historical society member. Then museum volunteer "docent". This might require something like 6 hr. p/month of manning a desk, sorting files, leading tours, etc... Attend the monthly or quarterly meetings. Get to know the other folk on a first name basis.

In other words: Don't LEECH off historians , BECOME a historian I know FOR A FACT that some of these museum historian folk will tell me that they SHUT OFF the information flow to anyone they discover is a metal detectorist or bottle digger type . The reason is: Some of those museums and historical societies have a sort of archaeological mindset (in fact, often members of the boards of directors are archies).

One time in a far away city, visiting a museum, I flashed them my museum credentials from my own town. The guy lit up and started answering every single question I had. Spending an entire hour of personal time with me. Because I was researching an adobe site's location. I never let slip that I was an md'r I found out later that he was an archaeologist. Doh! Point being: Having the museum worker/volunteer credentials not only gets you into source-materials, but it also can get you respected "in's" as you travel to other city's museums and historical societies.

 

[foiler]

I have made it a habit of being an active member of local historical societies in every place I've lived since 1968. Cataloging and maintaining the inventory logs is a job no one wants but me.