Most of the artifacts in our collection come from outside donors. Museums see themselves as keepers of the public’s items. We store them in climate controlled rooms with storage meant to be long lasting. We want visitors to be able to enjoy the objects for many more generations. People come by every week offering us items that we might use. Museums must be careful in selecting objects because we have limited space and resources to care for everything. Trust us, we would love to take in everything that is offered, unfortunately we cannot, and we hate having to say no.
Our top selecting criteria are:
1. Was it made/used/owned by someone in Gaston County or North Carolina?
2. Does it have a good story connected to it that we can share with our visitors?
3. Is it in good condition—will we be able to care for it long-term and display it?
4. Is it representative of a larger theme that will fit well in a future exhibit?
5. Do we have a good example of this particular item in the collection already?
There are many other reasons museums take in certain artifacts, but these are a few of ours.
When we are evaluating a potential donation, we generally don’t know how much anything is worth in terms of money. That is up to an appraiser who is trained in assigning the monetary value of an object like on Antiques Roadshow. We judge worth on the stories surrounding the artifact, how it represents a time period or other culture, and any craftsmanship that went into its creation.
Collecting artifacts from donors is a mutual, trusting relationship between the museum and the general public. We are a center for keeping and displaying things, or what we would call “cultural heritage”. When we take items in, we have the goal of caring for them indefinitely.
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