Local History

A Written Collection Policy

This article originally appeared in Exchange, a newsletter published by the Wisconsin Historical Society. (Volume 30, Number 1, Winter 1988) It is the 31st in a series of articles titled Conservation Corner. The series features information about maintaining an adequate environment for the storage and exhibition of historical collections, employing proper collection care techniques, and recording and cataloging historical collections. This article was written by Tom McKay, retired local history coordinator for the Wisconsin Historical Society. 

Of all the services that local historical societies perform, none is more important than that of saving from destruction historical artifacts, documents and photographs that form a record of the past. In innumerable cases, only the presence of a local historical society has prevented locally significant historical materials from being carted off to the landfill or scattered in all directions by the auctioneer's gavel. Over the years, this column has shared technical information on caring for the wide variety of materials found in local historical society collections. However, the way in which historical societies collect and the manner in which they administer those collections also have an impact on the care that historical materials will receive. The upcoming articles in this series will examine collecting policy, record keeping, cataloging and other aspects of the administration of collections that inevitably have an effect on their preservation.

Each historical item that becomes part of a local society's collection deserves proper care and places demands upon the resources available for collection care. As a result, how and what a local historical society collects partially determine how much and what kind of care collection items will have. Each new acquisition, whether a single molding plane, a complete carpenter's chest, or the entire contents of a carpenter's shop, will make claims on storage and/or exhibit space. An infestation of silverfish found in a newly acquired box of business records will require emergency treatment and may delay needed conservation treatment for another item already in the historical society's collection. Reconciling the benefits of building a broad based collection that documents the many sides of local history with the potential resources available to exhibit, store, and care for collections can present a historical society with difficult collecting decisions. A written collecting policy offers a tool to help guide those decisions.

A written collecting policy contains a set of criteria that must be satisfied when historical materials are added to a society's collection. The policy also delineates authority for acquiring and disposing of items in the collection. Written collecting policies vary in their details according to the needs of different local historical societies. However, basic provisions which every collecting policy should have include a definition of the geographical area that the collection represents, a statement that only unrestricted gifts and purchases may be acquired for the permanent collection, a clause on the tax deductibility of gifts to the historical society, and a designation of the responsible officials to approve acquisitions and disposals. Virtually all colleting policies state that items in poor condition should not be accepted into the collection.

Local historical societies may wish to further focus their collections with other reasonable limitations stated in their collecting policies. Many historical events or activities have been depicted in modern dioramas, paintings, models and artifact reproductions. While these items are usually labors of love, some may be poorly executed and others may provide misleading images with which to interpret the past to visitors. In such cases, a society may, as stated in a collecting policy, choose not to accept items that are not contemporary with the time period they represent. Memorabilia pose problems in collecting. A scrapbook of news clippings and souvenirs from local residents' trips to major cities around the United States may be of no use to a local historical society. If the same resident kept a scrapbook of news clippings and souvenirs documenting the visits of well-known people to the community, it might represent important themes or events in the community's history and serve a valuable purpose in the local historical society's collection. A clause on memorabilia can spell out the test of relevance to important themes or events in the community's history.

The question of authority to acquire and dispose of collection items merits careful thought. A local historical society's collection is most often its largest tangible asset as well as its central resource for fulfilling its mission. From those perspectives, final authority to add items to the collection or dispose of items in the collection should rest with the board of directors. However, the board cannot and should not be present on a daily basis to respond to donors who call, write or visit to offer items for the collection. In the case of a historical organization with a professional staff, the paid director or curator who serves as the head operating staff member should be authorized to approve temporary acceptance of donations to the collection pending final approval by the board. In a large organization, the director may delegate part of this responsibility to one or more staff members. In a volunteer operated historical society, the collection committee should report its recommendations for acquisition or disposal of collection items to the board of directors for its final approval. In most cases, approval of the report and its recommendations will be routine business similar to the approval of the treasurer's report at a board meeting. Nonetheless, board approval of collection acquisitions and disposals demonstrates responsible oversight of the society's tangible assets just as action on a treasurer's report signifies oversight of financial assets. Historical societies should be aware that disposal of collection items represents the reversal of previous decisions made on behalf of the society. In an analogy to the amendment of bylaws or other actions that reverse previous decisions, the society may wish to require more than a simple majority vote to dispose of items from the collection.

An example of a written collecting policy created to address the typical concerns of a local historical society appears below. It can serve as a useful guide although each individual historical society may need to tailor particular clauses to fit its specific situation. One procedure in the policy that every historical society should follow is the completion of a gift acknowledgment form that also establishes the society's ownership of items donated to its collection. These forms will be the subject of the next column in this series, Collecting Forms and Agreements.

Smithville Historical Society Collecting Policy

1. The society will collect items for the purposes of preserving and interpreting the history of Smithville and its immediate environs.
2. The society will collect: manuscripts, records, books, and other written and printed materials; photographs, prints, paintings, and other visual materials; tapes, recordings, and other oral history materials; equipment, furnishings, clothing and other natural, commercial, institutional, and personal objects of the past.
3. The society will accept memorabilia only if it represents important themes or episodes in the community's past.
4. The society may choose not to accept items which are in poor condition, which duplicate similar items in the collection, or which are not contemporary with the time period they depict.
5. All items accepted for the collections must be cataloged.
6. Only unrestricted gifts or purchases are accepted for the cataloged collections.
7. The curator is authorized to approve temporary receipt of items and recommend their acceptance for the cataloged collections.
8. Items can be permanently accepted for the cataloged collections only by a majority vote of the Board of Directors.
9. All acquisitions must be recorded on gift forms signed by the donor and an authorized official of the society. Both the donor and the society will receive signed copies of the gift form for their files.
10. Donations are tax deductible under Section 501c(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1954.
11. Donors are responsible for arranging and paying for their own appraisals.
12. Items in the cataloged collections can be disposed of only by a two-thirds vote of the Board of Directors.
13. In case of disposition of cataloged collections items, any funds generated must be used to benefit the collections.
14. Items may be accepted by a majority vote of the Board of Directors solely for the purpose of sale or exchange, provided that the donor is informed of that purpose.
15. Loans are accepted only for a limited time period and only for the purposes of exhibition or research.
16. In accordance with Wisconsin law, the curator will provide a copy of Wisconsin Statute 171, Subchapter II, Property in Possession of a Museum or Archives to each individual who makes a loan of historical materials to the society.
17. Loans from the society are made only for a limited time period, only to non-profit organizations of similar purpose, and only for the purposes of exhibition or research.