29 Jul
2010
29 Jul
'10
1:59 p.m.
On 7/29/10 11:39 AM, Richard wrote:
Doron Swade, "Napoleon's Waistcoat Button: Modern Artifacts and Museum
Culture," Museum Collecting Policies in Modern Science and Technology (London, 1991)
For the classic example, Google "Napoleon's Buttons"
Given that lots of computing history is currently in
private
collections, and that private collectors like to do things like
retr0brite their objects, how do museums deal with personal
collections that are on loan?
Exactly as an object in the museum's permanent collection as far as
preservation practices. We would not bleach an object we didn't own,
for example.
Do they advise the collector on how
best to preserve/conserve their objects but not object if the
collector does things that they wouldn't do?
I think you are the first person to ever ask us this.
The issue would only come up if the objects were offered for donation or
loan. If an object has been repainted or bleached, we'd have to have a
pretty strong case presented for adding it to our permanent collection.
For another example, consider the case of vintage
computing gear where
the collector has replaced (in a reversible way) the original
non-switching inefficient power supply with a more efficient switching
supply. Or where they have interfaced modern storage to a vintage
peripheral interface. As long as they're not soldering directly to
the board, this is a reversible change and the equipment can be
restored to its original working configuration.
However, given the conversation about conservators
above it seems that
this is something a museum would never allow to be done to one of
their artifacts. Is it that bad, or am I off base here?
It depends on the goals of the museum. If they want to show running iron,
you'll have to replace things that fail. The PDP-1 project at CHM is the one
we use as an example of best practices for restoring and maintaining a running
artifact.
Other projects here have been less successful.