They say that without provenance the museum object is worthless. The object record acts as a certificate of authenticity and contains everything from vital statistics on materials, dimensions, broken or worn bits, to ownership history, exhibition history, publication history… quite a lot of history. Index cards used to be the favoured medium of the curator’s record keeping… Continue reading Curator’s Advent. Day 7. Object record
Tag: collections
Curator’s Advent. Day 5. The accession number
The accession number imposes order on chaos. It turns a gaggle of tat into a collection and is a museum object’s status symbol.
Mediterranean material culture from prehistory to now
Back in March my chapter on material culture for the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Mediterranean History came out. It was a challenging exercise to condense into 8000 words the essence of the study of material culture in a Mediterranean geo-historical context and also to represent all periods of human history at the same time. I have… Continue reading Mediterranean material culture from prehistory to now
Top ten for heritage digitisation projects
Originally written and published in 2010 on Past Thinking. Republished here for archival purposes. Digitisation usually refers to making collections data, including images and other media, available online. But it may also refer to making any quantitative (e.g. historical datasets) or qualitative information (exhibition and learning resources) available and discoverable via the web. A digital… Continue reading Top ten for heritage digitisation projects
A bad curator blames their tools
I have been a member of the Social History Curators Group (SHCG) for a few years now. Of all the professional groups and societies dedicated to museum and collections work I have found SHCG to be the most useful. Most degrees and qualifications in museum studies (or indeed heritage management) lack opportunities for sustained subject-specialist… Continue reading A bad curator blames their tools
Stop trashing our collections!
Over the last four or five years, even before the austerity thing, British cultural collections and internationally-important training and teaching in cultural heritage, have been seen by many institutions as an expensive inconvenience when neither of these has been the case. I just want to list here, so I get it straight in my head,… Continue reading Stop trashing our collections!
Curating the Elizabeth Treffry Collection on Women in Cornwall and Scilly
My first commission since relocating to Penzance, Cornwall was an audit of the little-known Elizabeth Treffry collection held by the Hypatia Trust that serves to document the lives and works of women in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Meeting Hypatia Having heard much about the Hypatia Trust and its founder, Dr. Melissa Hardie, publisher, author… Continue reading Curating the Elizabeth Treffry Collection on Women in Cornwall and Scilly
Reconstructing the historic global copper industry from business archives
On 9 November I will be participating in the Historical Metallurgy Society‘s Research in Progress meeting in Sheffield. The day promises to be extremely varied where experimental archaeologists, historians, scientists and others will be getting together to share various aspects of their work. Subjects will range from the excavation of a medieval smithy in Oxfordshire… Continue reading Reconstructing the historic global copper industry from business archives
Medieval sacred textiles in Germany
Just a quick note to disseminate this excellent resource listing sacred textiles in German collections by Amalie on the Adventures in Historical Tablet Weaving blog. List of the contents of Sakrale Gewänder des Mittelalters. It reminded me that in Bamberg Cathedral’s treasury there is meant to be a cloak that belonged to Duke Melo of… Continue reading Medieval sacred textiles in Germany
Digital Britain and Collections
What role has Culture (capital C) in Digital Britain? And within Culture, what do digitised collections and content mean to the nation? Perhaps more importantly for the sectors involved in cultural provision (such as museums), can digital collections take part in the Digital Economy in a meaningful way? In January 2009, the UK Government produced… Continue reading Digital Britain and Collections