Elitist historical societies, museums, and archaeologists hammered in the press!!!

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

This report just hit the news via Associated Press. Take a gander at the job these so called professionals are doing in protecting our national heritage. And they want to make all lands off limits to metal detectorist because "we" are ruining our national heritage? This is like the joke of the decade folks. The next time one of these elitist starts looking down their nose at you hand them a copy of this report and suggest they get their own house in order before pointing any fingers.

Associated Press:

NEW YORK - Millions of rare artifacts in museums and libraries across the United States are slowly disintegrating because of improper storage, according to a survey said to be the largest-ever look at the condition of such collections.

Damage is occurring at institutions of all sizes, but is worse at small-town museums and historical societies, said the report, to be made public Tuesday at the New York Public Library.

The survey of conditions at 3,370 museums, libraries and archives found that many lacked the basic environmental controls that prevent photographs from losing color, keep rare books from crumbling to dust and protect military uniforms from being devoured by insects.

A quarter were deemed potentially vulnerable to damaging fluctuations in temperature, light and humidity. About 65 percent had already sustained damage to their collections.

Only one in five institutions had a paid staff dedicated to caring for stored materials, and fewer than one in three had an up-to-date assessment of the overall condition of their collection. Eighty percent of the institutions lacked a plan detailing how their objects might be saved if a natural disaster occurs, the survey said.

Preservation experts have long lamented the lack of attention given to conserving such material. Julie Reilly, director of the Gerald R. Ford Conservation Center at the Nebraska State Historical Society said it isn

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Hey Charles,

I do alot of research at local historical societies and it is a shame to see plat books, maps, and many other resources I use for finding good detecting sites slowly falling apart. Many of these items may be one-of items.

Most of these museums are run by volunteers, not highly paid professionals, and most have about zero dollars for doing any sort of preservation. Which is pretty much what the article says.

I think areas being put off limits to detecting is an entirely different animal. Some of it may be deserved- we have all seen people leave big holes while detecting and as a consequence everyone gets banned. I try to harp on people not to detect in dry conditions because it is almost impossible not to leave a brown plug.

Most of the efforts to ban detecting come from archeologists who have seen what plundering will do to a historical site, which of course has been going on for thousands of years. Most of this occurs overseas and I think many of these restrictions are being applied a bit too diligently to areas in the U.S.

I bet more historical items and context is lost here in the United States through real estate development in one hour/day/week than has been from all the metal detecting done in past thirty years. Every time I see a construction site I almost always get depressed thinking of all the neat stuff being dumped in a land fill somewhere.

Anyways, I think we should all try help our local historical societies preserve these items because they are also our best resource.

Chris

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[cachenut]

I am not surprised. The blame game does not work. Only by taking responsibility will these people become successful. Blame accomplishes nothing except making more problems.

They are not skilled and do not know what to do until someone says, lets blame the relic hunters and they all agree this is a good thing to do.

The article does sound weak though.

Some archives are really bad though. I visited one where I got to handle original un-cataloged documents from 1800s without any supervision or anyone watching me. Clearly some had been removed based on notes I saw. The staff did not know what they had.

At another site I got to look at documents from 1700 and was watched by camera and archivist constantly. No way could I steal or damage anything even if I wanted to. Sadly one of those archivist stole some of the same documents and sold them to private collectors. No one was watching the watchers. Sadly it was the National Archives.

Few archives could afford the temperature and atmosphere controlled rooms required to store documents. Many do use acid free packaging to store important documents. But also many of the same document are made from acid containing paper and will disintegrate anyway unless treated. They need to be treated for acid and stored in the acid free containers.

Then there is volume. The library of congress has a huge HUGE HUGE collection of old newspapers that they cannot treat and store properly. There are millions of newspaper editions. What can they do?

Some of it is ignorance and some lack of money and some just plain laziness.

I think this is where they should put funding and not into land easements, law enforcement of anti relic laws, and teaching others metal detectors are bad.

How much more important is the written record than a few relics underground rusting away.