What We Do With Objects

When an object is accepted as a donation to the Museum Service it begins a journey that will eventually see it joining thousands of other items under our long-term care. It isn't just a matter of placing it on a shelf and forgetting about it, which is why we have to ensure that we have the time and resources to look after it both now and in the future.

Sometimes this is the reason why we have to reject donations, simply because by accepting one object we are taking away the care from items already in the collections.

Paperwork, Databases and Lots of Tissue!

It may sound boring but documentation is the backbone of all museums, without it we would not know where an object has come from, who owned it (maybe someone famous), whether it is associated with other items in the collection, or linked to an important person or event.

Take for example the Needlers box above, which came into the collections in February 2014. It was given by a private donor to the Hull History Centre (sorry, but donor details are confidential, so we would never give out names and addresses), who then transferred it to our social history collection after it was agreed by our curatorial team. All the information about where it had come from, what it was, and date of transfer, was recorded onto a form which was signed by the donor to give us legal title to the object. Then comes the important bit, every single object in the collections is assigned an individual unique number so that we can track it wherever it goes. This box was given number 2014.43 by using a pencil to mark it underneath where it can't easily be seen when on display, and then the number was recorded in a log book called an accession register which lists everything in the entire collections. Following that we created an individual record on our computer database which links straight through to our collections website (have a look now by searching for 2014.43 in the search box above). The Needlers box was also photographed and we recorded its condition and measurements at the same time.

The type of storage required for any object is vital if it is to survive a long time (hopefully forever!). Our Needlers box is made of cardboard with coloured text and decoration, so it needs to be kept dry, away from bright light and any insects that may like the taste of cardboard! We have all sorts of ways of packing up objects depending on what they are made from, but whatever we use whether a box, tissue, cover, or plastic sleeve, it all has to be archival, meaning the objects won't react with acids or other substances in the packing materials. We have all seen old plastic go sticky, or tissue paper turn yellow with age. We certainly don't want that for our museum objects.

As you can see, any addition to the collections is very time consuming, but by making sure we record all the information correctly, the details can be used in future for enquiries, researchers, exhibition panels and labels, or even collections websites!