[Nhcoll-l] transfer of title for field-collection NH specimens

[Pellegrini, Rodrigo [DOS]]

I would be very interested in hearing your replies as well. My institution (the New Jersey State Museum) is multi-disciplinary and the Fine Arts side always pushes for Deeds of Gift (our transfer of title form) for every object, and for donor credit lines for everything we use on an exhibition. I had to explain the concept of exhibit props to them. They are currently in power, for lack of a better way of saying it, and it is rather infuriating to deal with that for Natural History specimens that were field collected legally in public land for which management does not require collecting permits.
For example, there are county parks that freely permit the public to collect fossils within their sites. When a donor brings a fossil collected in such localities, we just have them sign the deed of gift, but if one of us staff scientists collect on Museum time, it becomes a problem-we collected it for the museum and were funded by the museum to do so, so we don't hold title, and because the park publicly and freely permits collection there as a standing policy, there is no one individual recognized as an authority to sign anything over.
Then there are insects collected on museum grounds, for another example. Does the collector own them? Does the Museum? Does the State's department of Treasury? All these legal issues and protocols are well and good when you deal on Fine Arts and purchase or accept 10 paintings a year, but when you're getting hundreds of specimens in (as you do in Natural History) it is quite a burden.

I'm most interested to learn how others deal with this, whether in the UK, Europe, elsewhere, or particularly in the USA.

Rod

Rodrigo Pellegrini
Registrar, Natural History Bureau
New Jersey State Museum
PO Box 530
Trenton, NJ 08625-0530
USA

Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.state.nj.us<mailto:Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.state.nj.us>
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Ashe, Eimear
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2022 9:57 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [Nhcoll-l] transfer of title for field-collection NH specimens

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Dear colleagues,

Just wondering, do your institutions complete Transfer of Title forms (or an equivalent legal form) for field-collected natural history specimens?

The National Museum of Ireland does this for all of its collections, but the Natural History Division are wondering at the logic of completing a Transfer of Title form when a specimen was roadkill, washed up on a beach, collected in a park etc. That is, does the finder/collector hold title to a found object in a public space (or even private space, to complicate things), and can that title be transferred to us?

I would really appreciate emails from you outlining how you manage these acquisitions, particularly if you are attempting to follow the UK Spectrum standard, as we do in the NMI.

If there are online resources relating to this issue, please do share!

Kind regards,

Eimear


Eimear Ashe,
Documentation Officer (Natural History),
Registration Department,
National Museum of Ireland - Collections Resource Centre,
Balheary Road,
Swords,
Co. Dublin,
Ireland
K67 VR88

T: +353-1-8970069

[Ireland]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Decorative-Arts-History/Exhibitions/Studio-State__;!!J30X0ZrnC1oQtbA!bjGcD-gUtQkCMEc_7bmj5aV4mLHY7FToXZkTRKmWUyeGt9tcctDgJEyctuh-zbKyiwOCVwXqJQ$>
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