I. Statement of Purpose for Collection

The objective of the History Museum of Burke County in collecting artifacts is to create, maintain, and protect a body of material representing the history and cultural life of Burke County for purposes of preservation, study, research, and exhibitions through displays and other educational programs. Original research using items in permanent collections may be conducted by members of the Museum's Board of Directors, the Museum staff and outside scholars approved by the Museum director or the Acquisitions & Collections Committee. In addition to the production and dissemination of research through publication, the Museum endeavors to translate knowledge about the history and cultural life of Burke County for the public through exhibits and other appropriate media and programs. Since accepting all materials offered would be impossible, the following guidelines govern the Museum's acquisition, accession, preservation and disposition of artifacts, photographs, documents and other items for its collections.

II. Implementation of Guidelines for Collections

These guidelines for managing collections have been developed by the Acquisitions & Collections Committee and adopted by the Museum Board. Ongoing evaluation and development of these rules and their implementation is the responsibility of the Acquisitions & Collections Committee. However, in accordance with the Bylaws of the Museum, the Board of Directors has final authority in defining what materials are acceptable for acquisition, and any changes in these guidelines are subject to approval by the Museum Board. Although the Board retains ultimate responsibility for the acquisition, deaccession, and disposition of objects in collections, it has delegated to the Acquisition & Collections Committee the responsibility to make judgments regarding these management areas:

• (1) the acceptance and accession of suitable items for the Museum's collections;
• (2) the preservation and restoration of objects in the Museum's collections;
• (3) the borrowing and lending of items from the Museum's collections;
• (4) the deaccession of items that no longer meet the criteria for inclusion in Museum collections.

Thus, all items accepted for any collection must be approved by the Acquisitions and Collections Committee. Materials considered for acquisition are judged on their merits - carefully weighing values and costs against the scope, emphasis, and evolving programs of the Museum.

III. Acquisitions

• A. Scope

  The Museum collects objects, documents, and other archival materials directly relating to the history and culture of Burke County and area included therein from the earliest times. Materials from outside this range may be collected if they are deemed useful for illustration, interpretation, or expansion of ideas relevant to local or regional history, culture, or natural history. Museum collection types include permanent, educational, prop, and others as designated by the Acquisitions & Collections Committee.

  • (1) permanent - objects, items, or artifacts documenting significant historical and/or cultural conditions or events of Burke County.
  • (2) educational - objects are considered "educational" if the proposed use is in a "hands-on" learning experience designed to bring about an increased knowledge or attitude that contributes directly to understanding historical or cultural experiences of the county.
  • (3) prop - an item, object or device used to aid in creating a realistic effect for displays. Props are accepted into the collections under the "educational" designation.
  • (4) other - (as designated)

• B. Acquisition Procedures

  The acceptance of artifacts and the development of collections require careful consideration of several important issues:

  • Does the item meet collection policy and related guidelines?
  • Does the item enhance Museum's collections?
  • Does the item duplicate items already represented in the collections?
  • Does the item meet permanent or educational collection requirements?
  • Are special considerations associated with the item?
  • What are anticipated costs for staff, conservation and preservation, storage, insurance, etc.?
  • Is adequate display or storage space available?

  1. Solicited Items or Materials

  At the direction of the Acquisitions & Collections Committee, the Museum may periodically publish lists of items or materials being sought by the Museum for its collections or for temporary display and research. The committee will be responsible for compiling and distributing such lists.Prospective gifts, donations, or recommended purchases may be proposed to the Acquisitions & Collections Committee by any member of the Board or Museum staff. Persons receiving a potential acquisition must document the item(s) by using the "Object Receipt Record" form; then present the item(s) with the form to the Acquisitions & Collections Committee for review. The Committee may designate an acquisition and review panel to follow-up on proposed gifts, donations or purchases.

  2. Unsolicited Materials

  Should unsolicited materials be presented for examination to any member of the Board, or Museum staff, he or she will issue an "Object Receipt Record." The prospective donor should complete this form by providing a written description of each item under consideration, and verification of ownership. If possible, photographs shall accompany the competed form.

  • (1) Any person presenting unsolicited material(s) under an "Object Receipt Record" process must agree to do so with the understanding and agreement that neither the Museum nor its Board assumes any responsibility or liability for storage, preservation, care or security of such materials.
  • (2) As soon as possible unsolicited items and accompanying documentation will be forwarded to the Acquisitions & Collections Committee.

  Note: Information provided or conveyed by the donor in notes on the Object Receipt Record or the Donor Questionnaire may, in some cases be fragmentary, incomplete or inaccurate. Donor information may be supplemented or corrected through additional Museum research into the origin, historical background or use of the donated item. Clarifying information regarding a donation shall be included in museum cataloging of an accepted item.

  3. Acquisitions & Review Panel

  The Acquisitions & Review Panel is a subcommittee of the Acquisitions & Collections Committee and will, as needed, review proposed donations, gifts and loans. Panel membership shall consist of 3 to 5 members of the Acquisitions & Collections Committee. Should an Acquisitions & Review Panel be formed to consider a donation that Panel shall:

  • (1) Review the proposed donation, gift, or purchase. On-site interviews with potential donor(s) will be documented to include a written description of the material; background histories on ownership and use (provenance); and, if possible, photographs of the material. (At this preliminary stage, the material under review may remain with the prospect donor.)
  • (2) After reviewing the material the Panel will prepare a report documenting the review. Documentation of the review will be prepared under the provisions of these Guidelines for Collections statement and include all appropriate forms.
  • (3) Require that the donor certify that he or she has the legal standing and authority to complete all appropriate forms regarding the item(s) under consideration and his or her intention to transfer ownership of the material in question to the Museum.
  • (4) At the completion of its review Panel will forward its written report, documentation, and recommendations to the Acquisitions & Collections Committee for further action.

  Note: No transaction is complete and no actual transfer of ownership occurs until the Acquisitions & Collections Committee formally approves acceptance of the offered object. Gifts or sales to the Museum are not complete until the property is in the possession of the Museum and all necessary signatures have been obtained on the document of conveyance. Collection items do not become part of the Museum collections until they have been accessioned.

  4. Legal Transfer of Ownership

  • (1) At any time up until the final acceptance by the Committee, a donor may withdraw the offered gift by submitting a written request to remove the material from acquisition consideration by the Museum. After approval the material is contractually the property of the Museum.
  • (2) Although a completed "Deed of Gift" should accompany each proffered donation, if a "Deed of Gift" has not previously been signed by the donor, upon Committee approval, a "Deed of Gift" will be prepared detailing the item(s) being officially acquired by the Museum. This "Deed of Gift" shall be presented to the donor for signature.
  • (3) Following receipt of a properly executed "Deed of Gift," the Acquisitions Review Panel or the Acquisitions & Collections Committee shall take possession of the donated material, complete the "Accession Receiving Report" and "Object Condition Report." Submit all related reports and forms to the Acquisition & Collections Committee chairman for processing and inventory.
  • (4) All formal actions of the Acquisitions & Collections Committee are reported to the Museum Board and recorded in Official Board minutes. A permanent file of the records - including the "Official Receipt Record," "Deed of Gift," the Committee's review, and their decision with accompanying signed documentation - is maintained in the Museum office.

• C. Conditions of Acceptance

  1. Title

  • a. When acquiring objects for the collections, the Museum will obtain a full, valid title. Items will not be accepted if there is reason to doubt that the donor or seller has a full and valid title to the item(s) he/she is offering to the Museum. The burden of proof belongs to the donor or seller.
  • b. The Museum will not acquire any object which it has reason to believe was obtained in violation of state or federal laws, international laws, or the laws of the country in which the item was obtained; or the collection of which involved unnecessary destruction of habitats or archaeological sites, or the intentional killing of plants or animals belonging to threatened or endangered species. At all times, the Museum and its staff will act as responsible conservationists whose purpose is to protect and preserve the cultural and natural heritage and to serve as an example to the public.
  • c. Although, it is not presently foreseen, the Museum may, in the future have occasion to acquire items that may fall under provisions of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Such materials may include American Indian funerary objects, sacred objects, and cultural "communally-owned" artifacts. In each case where the probable ancestral affiliation of such materials can be determined, the Museum will attempt to locate actual or probable descendants; if such are found, collection inclusion will only take place with their agreement and/or cooperation.

  2. Conditions

  • a. The Museum, as a rule, will not usually accept materials on which restrictions are placed. Such restrictions and conditions prevent effective research examination, normal exhibition use, loan, or disposal in accordance with this document. The Museum cannot accept materials with conditions that would seek to impose permanent or long term exhibition, or that the collection of which they form a part should be kept together permanently and/or displayed only as a discrete collection. Exceptions to this rule may be allowed, only for particularly rare or important items. In such cases, the Museum will seek to negotiate a time limit for the restrictions and to have them couched in precatory rather than mandatory language. Any such exceptions must be approved by the Acquisitions & Collections Committee and, upon Committee recommendation, the Board. All conditions must be clearly stated on accompanying documentation and entered in the Museum's records. Loans of materials to the Museum will not be encouraged, but may be accepted in special circumstances for a fixed period for exhibition or research where donation is not appropriate.
  • b. If the Museum, under this exceptions clause, acquires an object with conditions, it accepts a legal and ethical obligation to comply with them.

  3. Acquisition of materials subject to copyright: (works of art, photographs, sound recordings, manuscripts, etc.)

  • a. In acquiring copyrighted works, the Museum will attempt to acquire full copyright from the author, artist, or other copyright holder.
  • b. In the absence of full copyright, the Museum may as a condition of acceptance of the donation and/or under the fair use doctrine:
    • (1) Make copies or photographs of the work for internal or archival purposes;
    • (2) Make copies or photographs of the work for such purposes as criticism, comment, publicity, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research.
  • c. Copyright statute specifically provides that the owner of an item, or any person authorized by such owner, can, without the authority of the copyright owner, display the item publicly.
  • d. In absence of full copyright, the Museum will attempt to negotiate the following limited rights:
    • (1) The right to reproduce the work in catalogues for sale, both the Museum's and those of other institutions or organizations that may borrow the work;
    • (2) The right to create marketable materials designed for educational or classroom use;
    • (3) The right to represent all or part of the work in items intended for sale by the Museum;
    • (4) The right to grant permission to scholars to reproduce the work in educational publications, such as college or university press publications.

  4. Non-relevant items

  Occasionally a donor may offer items to the Museum that fall outside the scope of collections or Museum needs.

  • a. Such items will not be accepted unless they may be used (through sale or trade) to acquire other objects for the permanent collections, or to further the care of the collections in the Museum.
  • b. In accepting non-relevant items, the Museum will clearly inform the donor that the items will not be placed in the permanent collections.
  • c. The Museum is not obliged to accept all items in a bequest. It may decide to accept only what is relevant to its stated collection scope and to its needs.

  5. Items of controversial nature

  Some objects of historical or artistic significance may cause offense to certain segments of the public because they may be politically controversial, racist, or defamatory in character. Furthermore, some offered donations may contain material with offensive language or negative stereotypes reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or location. Although such material may be offensive it may be accepted if it is representative of a particular cultural or historical period of Burke County. These issues shall be considered critically by the Acquisitions & Collections Committee. Care shall be taken to use current terms and neutral terms when describing and cataloging accepted materials.

  6. Problematic Storage

  The Museum will not acquire objects for which it cannot provide adequate storage and protection.

  7. Backdating

  At no time will Museum staff backdate gift agreements. Donors wishing to make contributions toward the end of the calendar year should be informed of this.

• D. Appraisals
  • (1) No officer or staff member of the Museum, member of the Museum Board or Museum employee shall give a written appraisal of material received for examination nor shall the Board of Directors assume any responsibility for a declaration of worth. The Acquisitions & Collections Committee may examine objects in order to identify and authenticate them for museum, scientific or educational purposes, or in order to comply with the legitimate requests of governmental bodies and their agents.
  • (2) Because of a potential conflict of interest, the Museum cannot pay for an appraisal of items to be donated to the museum.

IV. Deaccessioning of Materials

Of all aspects of collections management, deaccessioning is most likely to cause misunderstandings among museums, donors, and the public. Given that a museum's purpose is to collect and preserve objects in perpetuity for the benefit of future generations, for an institution to dispose of part of its collections may seem to be a violation of that purpose. However, collections are developing, changing entities, not mere accumulations of objects. The practical considerations of storage space, staff time, and conservation expenses must enter into any calculation of the public benefits of collections management. A museum cannot afford to permanently hold collections of little relevance, but must manage the collections in such a way as to produce the maximum benefit to the public and to the museum. On occasion this imperative may require the permanent removal of objects from collections. Deaccessioning may improve the collections by allowing the exchange or sale of less useful objects so that others more pertinent to the museum's purposes might be acquired; by allowing the disposable use of objects for research; or by simply eliminating objects of little or no relevance in order to allocate more space and attention to objects of greater relevance.

The Museum recognizes and accepts its accountability for the welfare of the collections. Accordingly, it stands by the principle that all acts of deaccessioning should be conducted cautiously, deliberately, scrupulously and in the open, with no attempts to conceal such actions from the public. The following section sets forth the Museum's guidelines for deaccessioning of materials.

• A. Objects in the permanent collections shall be retained as long as they are known to be authentic; relevant to the purposes and programs of the Museum, and are not broken, damaged, or deteriorated beyond repair; and as long as they can be properly stored, preserved, and used.
• B. Before an object can be considered for deaccessioning, it must fit into one or more of the following categories:
  • (1) Items that do not fall within the defined scope of the collections.
  • (2) Items improperly accessioned or acquired.
  • (3) Items that can be exchanged for better or more pertinent examples of the same class of item.
  • (4) Unnecessary duplicates--more than are required for exhibit, sampling or study.
  • (5) Objects that have deteriorated to the point that they are useless for exhibit or study and would not be cost-effective to restore.
  • (6) Objects impossible to safely store or exhibit.
  • (7) Forgeries, fakes, and objects acquired on the basis of false information.
  • (8) Replaceable objects needed for destructive analysis, where such analysis is deemed of greater public benefit than preservation of the objects.
  • (9) Objects that pose a hazard to other objects or to human health.
• C. The fact that an object meets one or more of the above conditions does not in itself indicate that it must or should be deaccessioned.
• D. Deaccessioned objects can be disposed of by means of gift, exchange, sale, transfer to another museum, redeposition, or intentional destruction.
  • (1) The Museum will not give deaccessioned objects to individuals. Gifts will be made only to museums, educational organizations or governmental bodies established for public educational or research purposes.
  • (2) The Museum may trade deaccessioned objects to another museum, educational institution, or governmental body in exchange for more pertinent material or for collections services.
  • (3) Because sale of objects to private parties potentially subverts the Museum's mandate to preserve, when the Museum sells deaccessioned objects to anyone other than a museum, educational institution, or governmental body, such sale must always be preceded by a public announcement and conducted by means of public auction.
  • (4) Forgeries and fakes may be given away, exchanged, or sold only to a museum, educational institution, or governmental body for research purposes. Their spurious nature must be clearly stated at the time of such a transaction, and if possible, the objects must be clearly marked as inauthentic. Such objects may also be destroyed.
  • (5) If deaccessioned objects are sold, the income will be placed in a special account to be used exclusively to purchase items for the collections or to cover expenditures for maintenance of the collections; it may not be reserved for a specific purchase or expense. There may be no direct link between a sale and subsequent purchase; collection objects are not sold in order to purchase other objects. There must be a strong basis for deaccessioning.
  • (6) No deaccessioned prehistoric or archaeological material of human origin should be sold. Such material must first be offered to the living lineal descendants of the American Indian tribe, state, or country from which it originated (if such can be determined). Legal requirements for disposal of such objects will be observed.
• E. Proposals for deaccessioning can be initiated only by the Acquisitions & Collections Committee. The Committee shall prepare for the Board a written recommendation regarding the proposed deaccessioning, stating justification for the proposed action and suggestions for disposal.
• F. All acts of deaccessioning, including the manner of disposal, shall be approved by the Committee at a regular or special called meeting. The vote shall be recorded in the minutes of that meeting and a copy of the minutes shall be filed with other documents pertaining to the item being deaccessioned. In making its decision, the Committee must decide if the act of deaccessioning and the manner of disposal are in the best interests of the Museum. Exceptions to this rule may be made in emergency situations in which the safety of the collections, staff, or the public is at risk. In such cases, the Board chair or a designee, is authorized to act quickly to eliminate the risk, submitting afterward a deaccessioning request and a report to the Acquisitions & Collections Committee at its next scheduled meeting.
• G. No deaccessioned object may be acquired by any Museum employee, member of the Board, volunteer, or by their representatives.
• H. Before deaccessioning an object, the Acquisitions & Collections Committee shall be responsible to verify that the Museum has full title to the item and that there are no restrictions or title questions that would impede deaccessioning.
• I. If mandatory restrictions have been placed on the disposal of an item, they should, except in the case of hazardous material, be strictly observed unless a court order can be obtained authorizing the Museum to deviate from them.
• J. If the restricting conditions are of a precatory nature, objects should not be deaccessioned until reasonable efforts are made to comply with the restrictions. All such efforts shall be fully documented.
• K. When necessary, the Acquisitions & Collections Committee will seek legal advice in actions involving restrictions and deaccessions.
• L. If someone should claim that an item in the Museum's collections had been stolen prior to acquisition by the Museum, the Museum should not surrender the item but should seek legal assistance.
• M. Deaccessioning - Donors' Rights
  • (1) Although the Museum is under no obligation to do so, as a matter of courtesy it will normally make reasonable efforts to notify the donor of the pending removal of an item from the collections and the manner of disposal.
  • (2) Deaccessioned objects will not be given back to donors or to their heirs under any circumstances.
• N. No act of deaccessioning shall conflict with county, state or federal laws, or with the ethical principles established for the Museum in this or any other official document.
• O. The Acquisitions & Collections Committee shall keep detailed written records of all steps in the process of deaccessioning any item from the Museum's collection.
• P. All acts of deaccessioning shall be recorded in the minutes of the Acquisitions & Collections Committee and in the minutes of the Museum's Board of Directors and shall be kept on file with the official records of the Museum's collections.

Adopted December 11, 2003
Revised April 14, 2005

[Policies are subject to change by the Board of Directors without prior announcement or posting. A current Policy Manual is available for viewing at the 201 West Meeting Street office or telephone 828-437-1777 with questions.]