Donating Artifacts to the Lacombe Museum
How to Donate Items to the Lacombe Museum Collection
The Lacombe Museum considers items for our collection as long as they fit within our Collections Mandate. With limited collections storage space we must carefully consider whether items fit our mandate or not. If you have something that you would like to donate to the museum follow these steps:
- Consider the connection the item has to Lacombe or Lacombe County – was it used here? Did the owner live here? Does it have a direct connection to our local history? Does it have a story?
- Contact our collections team to dicuss your item. Send photos and a brief description to our collections team at [email protected] or call us at 403-782-3933
- If the item is a good fit for our collection a staff member will arrange a time for you to drop the item off and fill out paperwork to transfer the -ownership of the item to the museum.
Are you downsizing? Do you belong to a community group considering transferring your documents to an archives?
If you have multiple items that you are considering donating to the museum but are unsure whether or not the items are suitable for the Lacombe Museum you can book an in-person appointment in which museum staff will come to where you have the items stored. The staff member can then determine if the items fall under the Lacombe Museum Collections Mandate. They will ask about the provenance of the items and will determine whether the items fit within the Lacombe Museum Collections Mandate. If the the staff member determines that the items are suitable for the museum collection you can either fill out paperwork and have the items removed by the staff member that day, or make a list of the items that can be brought to the museum when you are ready to donate them. Donors are under no obligation to donate items if they do invite museum staff to view items. If museum staff determine that the items do not fit the Lacombe Museum Collections Mandate the museum will offer to provide suggestions for appropriate museums or archives to consider donating the items to.
Why do you need to fill out paperwork to donate to a museum?
Museums ask that you fill out paperwork when an item is being considered for acceptance into the museum collection. At the Lacombe Museum we will ask that you fill out a Temporary Custody Receipt and a Certificate of Gift.
- Temporary Custody Receipt: This form is used to collect information about both the donor and the item. Information provided about the item will help museum staff or our Collections Committee determine whether or not the item is eligible for acceptance into the collection. A donor must also specify on this form what they want the museum to do with the object (unconditional donation, consider for acquisition, identification, or other) and what the donor wants the museum to do with the item if it is not accepted for donation (donor will pick up, museum can dispose of, museum can sell). This form is then used to help track the item.
- Certificate of Gift: This form allows the donor to sign over the legal rights of the item to the museum. This form must be completed for the Lacombe Museum to keep the item. A potential artifact cannot be entered into the collection without a completed Certificate of Gift. The Certificate of Gift also tells the museum how an item should be credited when it is on display.
What does the Lacombe Museum do with donated items?
- Assign an identification number (called an accession number), photograph, and enter into the collections database
- Store in our collections storage: Items are labelled, and housed in acid-free materials as is appropriate. Then they are tracked within our storage facilities.
- Put on display: Items are placed on public display when they fit the narrative of an exhibit. To limit potential damage to artifacts most are not placed on long term display.
- Place into the programming collection: Our programming collection consists of items that we let the public interact with, that are placed on long-term display, or are used in the Blacksmith Shop Museum. Items in this collection are allowed to wear out with use, but are also repaired as needed. If a donor requests that an item is used for demonstration purposes it will become part of this collection.
- Make them available by request: Members of the public can request access to items in the museum collection for research, cultural, or personal purposes. If photos or archival materials have been digitized the digital versions will be used to complete the request.
Why Might an Object not be Accepted into the Collection?
- It has no clear connection to Lacombe or Lacombe County: Our mandate is to preserve the heritage of Lacombe and Lacombe County. If an object does not have a clear connection to our community it may not be accepted into the collection. The more a donor knows about the history of an object the more likely it is to be accepted into the museum collection. We are interested in who used it, when it was used, where it was used, etc. Archival materials such as documents, record books, or photographs often contain enough information within them to determine a clear connection. Museums are interested in the “provenance” of an item just as much as the item itself so determining clear provenance increases the likelihood that the item is accepted into the collection.
- There is a similar object already in the collection: The Lacombe Museum unfortunately has limited collections storage space so we have limited opportunities to store multiple examples of one type of object.
- The item is too large to be stored in our facilities: The Lacombe Museum has extremely limited oversized item storage in our collections spaces, as such we often cannot accept large items.
- The item is in poor condition: If an item is in poor condition and requires conservation beyond that which our staff can provide it may be considered ineligible for the Lacombe Museum collection.
- The item is unsafe to handle and store: If an item is suspected to contain materials that are unsafe for staff to handle, or could make the environment in our collections storage unsafe for both people and other artifacts it may not be accepted into the museum collection.
Caring for the Collection
The Lacombe Museum strives to care for items in the manner best suited to them. Care can vary based on the material an item is made from, the age, the condition, and a variety of environmental factors.
For most archival objects (photographs, paper-based items) part of their care and conservation includes digitization. New photograph acquisitions are digitized as they are received. This may be done either with a scanner or a camera. Both methods allow the museum to make a high-resolution copy of a photograph, or negative. The copy is stored in our computer system and can then be reproduced or used for research. Other archival documents are digitized as needed, as their condition requires, or as the museum has staff or volunteers available to undertake digitization projects.
Our best method of caring for our collection is proper storage. This includes ensuring the environment in our storage space is as close to the proper temperature and humidity as our equipment can manage. We also strive to store all items, whether digitized or not, in archival-quality materials. These materials help ensure the longevity of objects in our collection as they are acid-free and do not off-gas pollutants into our collections storage. The equipment and materials used by our collections team can be costly.
Though not required to donate artifacts we encourage donors to consider a monetary donation to accompany object(s). The monetary donation would be used to purchase the storage materials required for the care of any donated objects. Most items can be stored in a pre-fabricated archival box. Depending on the size and material boxes can range in price from $25-$150. Other items are better suited to custom storage solutions. The Lacombe Museum encourages donors to consider covering the cost of the archival box required for their items, but all donations towards the archives is greatly appreciated. General donations can go toward archival supply orders, technology upgrades, or the costs associated with repairing equipment like scanners or cameras.
