[Nhcoll-l] Number removal upon deaccessioning

Tue Dec 15 09:33:26 EST 2015

There might be one additional reason you would remove (and replace) an accession/catalog number.  If the number is written directly on the face of an object, obscuring important detail or preventing it from being displayed.  In this case, if the number can be removed and placed in a less distracting situation it probably should.  Unfortunately, all too often in the past, numbers were sometimes applied with no consideration of visual context.

In this situation the number should be re-applied in a better spot immediately.  Of course – this does not apply to original collector information on tags. If you remove a numbers make note of what you do in a condition report or in the catalogue file.

I recently had to remove permanent numbers from a dozen Tlingit basket. The numbers were painted on the sides of the baskets – and were about an inch high.

Gretchen Anderson
Conservator
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
5800 Baum Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15206
AndersonG at CarnegieMNH.Org<mailto:AndersonG at CarnegieMNH.Org>
412-665-2607 (office)
412-420-9083 (Cell)

Gretchen

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of John E Simmons
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2015 8:48 PM
To: Leslie L Skibinski <lls94 at cornell.edu>
Cc: NHCOLL-L (nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu) <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Number removal upon deaccessioning

Thanks for mentioning the deaccessioning workshop, Patti.
Just to clarify--I do agree that accession and/or catalog numbers should never, ever, be re-used (after all, the supply of numbers is infinite...!).

Whether an accession number or catalog number should be removed from a specimen or object is a bit more nuanced. We didn't have time in the webinar to get into the fine details, but my position is as follows:

If the specimen or object is going to go to another museum, in almost all cases you should leave the number on it as it makes it far easier to track it down in the future, long after everyone has forgotten the details of the deacession and transfer. However, if the specimen or object is to be sold or destroyed, I would in almost all cases remove any accession or catalog numbers. There are several reasons for this. One is that the presence of the number makes the object or specimen appear to still belong to your institution when, in fact, you no longer own it, which can be confusing. Another is that this evidence that the object or specimen was once in a museum affects the price (usually makes it worth a lot more). A third reason is that leaving the number on may make it appear as though your institution is selling specimens or objects just to make money (deacessioning as a collections management tool is rarely understood by non-museum folks).
In natural history museums in particular, specimens are normally deaccessioned only for trade or exchange to another museum. In this case, leaving the original accession and/or catalog numbers attached is important for keeping track of the specimen (over the years I have worked in museums I have several times seen specimens with multiple catalog tags on them, making it easy to trace their history). For some kinds of specimens (e.g., amphibians and reptiles) the catalog tag usually just bears a number and museum identifier and can be replaced if needed, but for some other kind of specimens (e.g., birds or mammals) the catalog tag may carry original information and must be treated as an archival document and not be destroyed.
A couple of museums I have worked with have had the misfortune to discover that objects they deacessioned wound up for sale by a third party on eBay or similar sites listed as "from the collection of X museum," which does nobody any good and usually reflects badly on the museum that deacessioned the object.
--John

John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
simmons.johne at gmail.com<mailto:simmons.johne at gmail.com>
303-681-5708
www.museologica.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.museologica.com&d=AwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=yOSfhluLJOrCk2AbtWtDAGSqiX_3J2qQT3xklVB9i9w&s=mLoQcmPFRPVghtYWCKM0qyUzLohZZedolEothXdfCqg&e=>
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
and
Instructor, Museum Studies
School of Library and Information Science
Kent State University
and
Lecturer in Art
Juniata College
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 1:27 PM, Leslie L Skibinski <lls94 at cornell.edu<mailto:lls94 at cornell.edu>> wrote:
Hello everyone,

What does your institutional policy say about “removing” your institutions catalog or accession numbers from specimens when you deaccession something?  Do you remove or gesso over the number?  Do you draw a line through it?  Do you do nothing to the number?

Do you have different procedures if you are disposing of the material in different ways (i.e. transfer to another institution vs destruction, etc.)?

If you are transferring it to another institution and you have obliterated the number on the object, do you also take the number off the label?  If you do, how do you ensure the information on the label/the label itself stays with the specimen?  Do you remove the label and lose provenance or do you keep the label with the specimen?

Any insights, examples or literature citations would be appreciated.

Leslie L. Skibinski
Collection Manager
Paleontological Research Institution
1259 Trumansburg Road
Ithaca, New York  14850

Ph.  (607) 273-6623  ext. 28<tel:%28607%29%20273-6623%C2%A0%20ext.%2028>
Fax:  (607) 273-6620<tel:%28607%29%20273-6620>

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