Threatened and Orphaned Collections

SPNHC Threatened Collections Toolkit

The aim of this toolkit is to provide information about what to do if you are offered an "orphaned" collection, if your museum's collection becomes endangered, if you want to prevent a collection from becoming orphaned, or if you have to deaccession an orphaned collection.

Contributors

SPNHC Sessional Committee on Threatened Collections (P. T. Work, Chair, 2003– 2005)

What are endangered and orphaned collections

• Orphaned collection: A collection that has lost curatorial support or whose owner has abandoned it (Cato et al. 2003, p. 255). A collection that is no longer wanted by the institution or individual that houses it. The institution publicly renounces its responsibility to care for the collection. Often, the collection is offered and adopted by another institution but sometimes collections are disposed of without consultation.

• Endangered collection: A systematic collection that, for any reason, is or soon may be no longer regarded as of value to its present ownership and thus in danger of becoming lost to the systematics research and education community (Duckworth et al. 1993). Collections that lack curatorial support at the moment or are in imminent danger of losing curatorial support, and may become orphaned in the near future (Hoagland 1994).

• Endangered/orphaned collection: “a substantive body of systematic material which is or soon may be no longer regarded as of value in its present ownership. This may be due to reduction of or absence of staffing or other support or negative or uninformed institutional policy decisions. The collection thus is in danger of becoming lost to the systematic research and education community…Adoption or acquisition of an endangered/orphaned collection is an activity independent of normal collecting activities of the museum, university or other entity.” (West 1988, p. 65).

What natural history collections are at risk?

Museum collections, university collections, corporate collections, and private collections can be at risk of being orphaned. In addition, natural history specimens may be held by archives, public and academic libraries, historical societies, art museums, and history museums (Heritage Health Index data). Once a decision has been made to dispose of a collection, often the owners want it removed immediately, causing an overwhelming problem for potential takers.

Why do collections become orphaned?

1. Cuts in funding. Natural history collections, especially those in universities often receive a disproportional loss in funding during times of budget reduction (Heyning 2004). In some cases museums may find themselves in severe financial difficulty with the collections listed as a financial asset, e.g. Milwaukee Public Museum in 2006 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 2007).
2. Change in research focus. A shift away from whole organism research has been blamed for a decline in the use of natural history collections, as well as a lack of training in systematics. Many paleontology collections were orphaned in the 1990s when oil companies decreased oil exploration and research and cut their paleontology staff. This lack of paleontology jobs in turn affected universities with paleontology programs with the result that teaching collections were endangered or orphaned. It is not unheard of for a museum or university to start disposing of its collection, then stop halfway when a new faculty hire wants to use it (e.g. entomology collections at Towson University, Maryland).
3. Change in teaching focus. Changing trends in science teaching means that some collections are no longer part of teaching and research programs.
4. Retirement of person looking after collection, especially if there is no official curator post.
5. Retirement, ill-health or death of private collector. A museum may find itself having to accept a collection at short notice either as the result of a bequest or at the request of relatives of the deceased.
6. Institutional department collapses or changes focus leading to loss of interest in the entire collection and decision to dispose of it and use the space and funds for something else.

Warning signs of endangered collections

1. No designated caretaker. A museum may be lacking a specialist curator or collections manager for a particular sub-collection. A university collection may be cared for by a faculty member or students under a voluntary arrangement that is not necessarily continued by their successor or supported by their institution. A collection may be lacking any curatorial support or may be the responsibility of someone with no training or background in collections.
2. Lack of, or disassociation of, documentation. A lack of documentation decreases the research value and the interpretation value of a collection. Lack of documentation may be due to not acquiring data on arrival of collection, data buried in field notebooks that have since been lost or moved, data recorded in a catalogue that has since been lost or moved, no link made between data and specimens (e.g. specimens not marked with identifying numbers), several cataloguing methods used and forgotten over time, loss of information when caretaker retires.
3. Lack of use (or perceived lack of use). Even if research focus or use of a particular collection has declined within the institution, there may be potential external users. The main problem is disseminating the information about what’s available and making the data and specimens accessible. Within a university, a collection can also be used to demonstrate collection care techniques or as part of a science education class.
4. Removal to off-site or temporary storage. All museums and research collections find themselves running out of space at some point. Usually this is dealt with by moving some less-used collections to “temporary” off-site storage, often rented, frequently sub-standard. These collections then become endangered because of further lack of use, impaired accessibility, cost of storage, and in some cases, physical deterioration.

Taking in an orphaned collection

If you are offered and orphaned collection:

1. Consult your written collection or acquisition policy for the acquisition of collections from outside organizations or individuals. Don’t have one? West’s 1988 report
2. Cato, P. S., J. Golden, and S.B. McLaren. 2003. Museum Wise: Workplace Words Defined. Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, Washington, DC, 380 pp.
3. Duckworth, W. D., H.H. Genoways, and C.L. Rose. 1993. Preserving Natural Science Collections: Chronicle of our Environmental Heritage. National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property. Washington , DC, 140 pp.
4. Hoagland, E. (ed.) 1994. Guidelines for Institutional Policies and Planning in Natural History Collections. Association of Systematic Collections, Washington, DC, 120 pp.
5. West, R.M. 1988. Endangered and orphaned natural history and anthropology collections in the United States and Canada. Collection Forum 4(2): 65-74.
6. Heyning, J. E. 2004. The Future of Natural History Collections. Collections 1(1): 6-9.
7. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel March 30 2007. “Gift may spare museum.” Article by Steve Schultze, accessed online at http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=584339 on 05/16/07.