Collections Policy
Scope of Collections Statement
(approved by boards March 15, 2017)
The Box Elder Museum of Art, History, and Nature includes the Brigham City Museum of Art and History and the Box Elder Museum of Natural History. As such, it collects in three different areas – art, history, and natural history, which include some overlap (for instance, mining history includes both history and natural history to some degree).
All collections held by the Museum should be appropriate for its mission.
All works of art, artifacts, and specimens should be of museum quality.
Specimens, artifacts, works of art, etc. must:
– be legally owned by the donor
– have been legally obtained, including the appropriate permits (a copy of appropriate permits must accompany the donation)
– not be forbidden items according to present state, federal, or international laws.
In evaluating an object for acceptance into the Permanent Collection of the Museum, curatorial staff will consider the following questions:
– What is the local history significance of the object?
– Is there documentation (written or oral) on the object?
– Is the object in need of conservation work?
– Does the object duplicate or support the existing collection?
– What is the object’s exhibit potential?
– What impact would the object have on available storage space?
– What is the cost of caring for the object annually?
Acceptance obligates the Museum to furnish professional, long-term care for the object; to provide a stable, secure environment for it in both storage and exhibit situations; and to protect it from unnecessary handling, excessive light, and other damaging effects. A gift contract, listing the items and signed by the donor and a Museum representative, makes the transaction official and provides both parties with a legal record of the gift.
Art:
Art collections should encompass all media, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, designers/crafts, and so on. Art collected should not be limited to Utah artists. Instead, the Museum will collect art by artists of the Intermountain West, and depicting the Intermountain West. Art also includes art quilts from around the globe.
History:
Historic collections should encompass all of Box Elder County, although there is a strong focus on Brigham City due to the museum’s past collecting.
Towns, cities, and unincorporated areas from which materials may be collected include: Bear River City, Brigham City, Corinne, Garland, Honeyville, Perry, Tremonton, Willard, Deweyville, Elwood, Fielding, Howell, Mantua, Plymouth, Portage, Snowville, Riverside, South Willard, Thatcher, Beaver Dam, Bothwell, Collinston, Etna, Grouse Creek, Harper Ward, Lynn, Park Valley, Penrose, Promontory, Rosette, Standrod, Yost, Blue Creek, Cedar Creek, Golden,
Jackson, Kelton, Lucin, Matlin, Russian Settlement, and Terrace.
All eras of history within Box Elder County will be collected, including contemporary history, pre-history, etc.
The Museum’s collections should reflect the breadth, depth, and complexity of the experiences of the people of Box Elder County. The Museum actively seeks items to illuminate under-represented stories and groups. Collections include material related to local Shoshone occupation, as well as archaeological materials found throughout the county which document pre-historic occupation of the area.
History collections are not limited to specific types of artifacts, so long as they are relevant to our collecting area, and within our ability to house them. Items may include furniture, portions of buildings, images, documents, textiles, maps, musical instruments, oral histories, etc. Artifacts may reflect larger national or international themes, but should always focus attention on how those events affected life in Box Elder County.
Natural History:
The natural history collections cover mining history, archaeological specimens, minerals, and fossils. While dinosaur fossils are collected, they are not the focus of the Museum’s collections, and should be collected only as needed for particular exhibition or outreach needs, or to represent dinosaurs found in Utah. Should dinosaur fossils be found in Box Elder County, the Museum should attempt to acquire them. While specimens related to Box Elder County’s natural history are a major focus for the collection, minerals and fossils from throughout the world have a place in the collection. Trilobites are also a major focus.
Types of specimens include:
– invertebrate fossils (trilobites, fossilized leaves, petrified wood, etc.)
– vertebrate fossils (dinosaurs, reptiles, fish, mammals, etc.)
– minerals and gems
– items related to the mining history of Box Elder County (including photographs, documents, artifacts from mines, etc.)
Collections do not include taxidermy, study skins, skeletons (other than prehistoric creatures), fluid-preserved specimens, herbaria, and so forth.
Education
Items may be added to the education collection if they do not meet criteria for regular accessioned collections, but may be of other interest for hands-on use in the museum, or for outreach activities. Items may also be acquired specifically for education use. These items are designated HO (hands-on) in museum databases.
Additional considerations
- Is the object consistent with the collection goals of the museum?
- Is the object so unusual that it presents an exceptional opportunity for the museum and thus should be given preferential consideration?
- If the object is offered for sale, might it or a comparable object be obtained by gift or bequest?
- Can the proper care be given to the object?
- Will the object be utilized in the foreseeable future?
- Is the provenance of the object satisfactory and how is this decision made?
- Is the object encumbered with conditions imposed by the donor? (As a rule, only unrestricted objects should be accepted. The collection committee may approve exceptions.)
- Is the use of the object restricted or encumbered by intellectual property rights (copyright, patent, trademark, or trade secret) or by its nature (obscene, defamatory, potentially an invasion of privacy, physically hazardous)?
- Will the acceptance of the object in all probability result in major future expense for the museum? (For conservation? Maintenance? Because it opens a new area of collecting?)