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Real or repro? What to display and what to “fix”?

3/6/2019

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I just read an article from The Washington Post Magazine (Feb. 27, 2019, thanks AASLH), titled “The Imitation Game: Some of the most beloved objects in Washington museums are not as authentic as visitors might assume.”

This article struck a nerve because of two discussions I had this week regarding OUR museum.

The first was with fellow staff for our upcoming World War I exhibit on whether or not to hang our World War I service flag (or blue star flag). Folks would hang the flag in their window to let others know they had family members serving in the war (see earlier post about service flags HERE). The flag has some wear lines and holes near the bottom, and it was our textile specialist’s concern that hanging for a year or more could risk expanding those holes.

Instead, perhaps we mount the flag on a slant board covered with archival fabric, as we’re doing for another more fragile textile in the exhibit (Marion Billings' Victory Dance dress), BUT, we don’t have a safe place to position a slant board where we need it.


We could photograph the flag and pay to have it reproduced poster size and mounted on foamcore -- and hang that. That would still give us the deep shot of color amidst the army green and dark metal helmets and show a copy of our local flag, not just an image pulled from the Internet.

Or maybe we could buy a repro flag from ebay for not too much money, suggested Meg Baker, our textile specialist, and not worry about light or hands touching it.

Yet, here's the thing: we have the ACTUAL flag that was displayed in a window by a Hatfield family, the Bardwells, representing their sons Homer and Curtis serving in the war. If this flag is not displayed now, for our WWI exhibit, then when? This is it’s time in the sun!

OK, bad metaphor, especially since one side is quite faded from prior light damage -- probably from hanging in the Bardwell’s window. For the record, we have UV-blocking tubes on all our fluorescent lights and no direct sunlight would reach the flag.


These are the sorts of discussions that go on all the time when making museum display decisions -- balancing the value of showing the public authentic artifacts against the responsibility to preserve those artifact for the future.

Here’s what we decided -- at least for now. Hang the real flag on archival fabric for the opening on Memorial Day Weekend and through July 4. But for the remainder of the exhibit, replace it with a poster-sized reproduction on foamcore, noting why we made that decision.

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That was the first discussion. The 2nd one, via email, was with local bookbinder John Nove, who is doing repair work on a group of our museum books. In this case, he proposed repairing a tear and making a pocket to hold the somewhat brittle misfolded map attached to the back of Edward Hitchcock’s 1841 Final Report on the Geology of Massachusetts in Four Parts. We decided to do that because it would better preserve the map and make it possible to unfold and view without hurting it further.

He also asked if he should remove the library pocket and card (with no entries), not on the last page, but 2 pages inside the back cover, especially since the book was marked elsewhere as “Reference, not to be taken out.”


Once confirming the library pocket was not hurting the book or the map, I asked him to leave the library pocket alone, as it helps tell the story of this particular book -- however confusing a story that may be.

Artifacts often mirror life in that way -- confusing and messy. But sometimes their circuitous journeys are also what draw us in.

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Prepping for spring

3/19/2011

 
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Time always passes so quickly when I’m in the museum, as if the normal rules of time don’t apply. All of a sudden, it’s 1:30 pm, the library has closed, and I have half-a-dozen small projects still begging for completion. This week we received some much-needed archival supplies – acid-free legal-size file folders for holding deeds, and acid-free bankers boxes and tissue paper for rehousing a lot of textiles and hats, as well as other things. If you'd like to help us catalog, photograph or re-pack items this coming spring and summer, please give me a call or send me an email. The trouble with storing and displaying items properly (archivally, that is), is that it takes money and a lot of  space, neither of which are in great supply. It was a day of detail-oriented tasks, including printing new labels for a deed box, a bond trunk and the clock tower pendulum.

It was also a day of general organizing and creating new file folders, as I may not be in the museum before it opens to visitors for the season on Saturday, April 2. Farm Museum Curator George Ashley will be hosting that day as I’ll be out of town.

I also played host today to a visitor, Hatfield archeaologist Randy Daum, who gave the great presentation at our meeting this past week, about his discovery of a late 1600s Colonial village in North Hatfield. He was interested in some of the old maps showing homesteads, in the piece of a brass spoon from the 17th century, and our old deeds. If you have any 17th century (or early 18th century) deeds or artifacts from Hatfield, especially from the Bradstreet area, consider showing them to Randy, as it may help his research. And if you’re looking for a place to keep those items safe and make them available to you and the public for the future, please consider donating them to the Historical Museum.

Check out our upcoming April and May programs on the Events page, as well as new featured artifacts on the Home page! 


 


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    Curator's musings...

    As the curator of a small town Historical Society museum, I wonder a great many things. Am I alone in these thoughts that come to me while driving, or exercising, or falling asleep at night? Is it unusual to be constructing displays and writing copy in one's head for an enlarged museum space that does not, as yet, exist?

    If you're wondering about the blog title, "bird by bird," see my First Post for an explanation! Click HERE to read it.

    When I'm not thinking about our museum or rehousing artifacts with my fellow museum committee members, I'm working with our exhibit committee to plan physical or virtual exhibits, and working with our board to help fundraise.

    I invite your comments and reactions.

    --Kathie Gow


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