Say Hello To ‘For Folk Sake’!
Welcome to our new blog series for the Museum of Gloucester, 'For Folk's Sake'. This blog series will follow the adventures of our Collections Team into our social history collections at The Folk.
In 2019, the building was taken into the ownership of Gloucester Historic Building Ltd and entrusted to the care of the Civic Trust as part of ensuring its future a vibrant community space. The collections on display and stored at the former Gloucester Life Museum still remain under the care and ownership of the Museum of Gloucester. The Collections Team are working to decant these objects - some 25,000 collection items – to new homes within the Museum’s stores on Brunswick Road.
A really common misconception of the decant project is that the Museum is getting rid of all of these items – a process referred to as disposals - which were in the care of the Gloucester Life Museum (herein called The Folk). This is not the case. In fact, this means that we can move all of our collections into storage which has better environmental controls and is more accessible so we can continue to preserve these collection items for future generations to enjoy and have easier access to them for display and research.
This is an exciting opportunity for us to re-engage and unite them with other objects that have been under the care of the Museum of Gloucester, enabling us to tell a much richer and more in depth story of the history and development of the City of Gloucester. Part of this process is looking into and understanding all of the objects that we have. We will be assessing, researching, condition checking, packing and moving the entire social history collection – which at 25,000 items is an awful lot!
We only have a finite number of resources, which includes the most precious and sought after entity in all museums across the world: storage space. With a limited amount of space and resources to continue to look after over 750,000 objects at the Museum, as part of the decant process, we have made the difficult decision to review every single object in the collection. This means that as we go through the project, we will be assessing the items according to the Museum Association's standard of reviewing and rationalizing - essentially checking where these objects have come from, their condition, what their relevance to Gloucester is, how significant they are locally, regionally, and nationally. If we find that an item does not meet our standards in our Collections Development Policy (https://democracy.gloucester.gov.uk/documents/s61955/Appendix%201%20Collections%20Development%20Policy.pdfof) we will carry out a disposals review – BUT this does not mean that we will put it in the bin!
What we mean by 'Disposal Review':
After our extensive analysis of the object and its significance, including measuring, checking context, researching, photographing, documenting and condition assessing, we may find that they have a greater use elsewhere. If this is the case the first step, after contacting the donor where they are still contactable, is to find a home for the object at an alternative museum, using the 'Museum Association Find an Object' website. Another museum may find the item is more relevant, gives greater context, and could also mean that it is more likely to be on display for public benefit. This is all really great news! If this option is not available or another museum does not want it, we would see if we could recycle or reuse the object – this means we could give it to community groups, or people who need and will make use of the item. If you'd like to see an example of where this has happened before please follow this link: New for Old: A story of amateur photography - Science Museum Group Blog . However, we recognize that unfortunately due to its age or its condition, not every object will be able to go through these steps, especially where they may present a hazard to people or other objects in the collections (think of those pesky asbestos filled objects or old ‘medicines’). These objects will be disposed of safely and carefully and the donors, where still contactable, will be informed. We do this only where absolutely necessary and following strict ethical standards and guidelines.
We are currently working through our stores, and it is amazing what we have found, ranging from an eclectic array of forks, knives, can openers (we have 95 of these!), and thousands of pins! please follow our monthly blogs and check out our Facebook and Instagram for updates on our story!