Pub Date : 2022-01-18DOI: 10.1177/15501906211072909
C. Mizota, R. Hansen, T. Hosono, A. Okumura, R. Shinjo, M. Aizawa
Highly purified specimen of saltpetre, kept in two glass jars are stored in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom. Historic catalogs of the specimen collection record their acquisition date as 17th March, 1881. The specimen represent heritage of the saltpetre industry during the times of the colonial British India. Chemical analysis shows that they are highly refined, containing only traces of impurities. Dual isotopic composition (δ15N and δ18O) of nitrate implies their intrinsic origin as British India. In addition, relative to highly radiogenic signature of Sr widespread throughout India, less radiogenic strontium (87Sr/86Sr = 0.707859–0.714168) in the specimens suggests that final stages of the refining took place in western India where relevant waters containing pristine Sr were used. Stable isotope geochemistry in combination with history and socio-economy provide new insights into this research area which is not yet fully understood.
{"title":"Provenancing Nineteenth Century Saltpetre From British India Using Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Strontium Isotope Ratios","authors":"C. Mizota, R. Hansen, T. Hosono, A. Okumura, R. Shinjo, M. Aizawa","doi":"10.1177/15501906211072909","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211072909","url":null,"abstract":"Highly purified specimen of saltpetre, kept in two glass jars are stored in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom. Historic catalogs of the specimen collection record their acquisition date as 17th March, 1881. The specimen represent heritage of the saltpetre industry during the times of the colonial British India. Chemical analysis shows that they are highly refined, containing only traces of impurities. Dual isotopic composition (δ15N and δ18O) of nitrate implies their intrinsic origin as British India. In addition, relative to highly radiogenic signature of Sr widespread throughout India, less radiogenic strontium (87Sr/86Sr = 0.707859–0.714168) in the specimens suggests that final stages of the refining took place in western India where relevant waters containing pristine Sr were used. Stable isotope geochemistry in combination with history and socio-economy provide new insights into this research area which is not yet fully understood.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"8 2","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120907480","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-10DOI: 10.1177/15501906211072914
Elijah John F. Dar Juan
Costumes play a significant role in theatrical and television practice as age, gender, socioeconomic status, occupation, and the setting and climate are shown through them. This paper will enumerate some of the productions in which the costumes are included in the collections of two organizations: the Cultural Center of the Philippines, a government arts agency for the performing arts, and GMA Network, Inc., a media conglomerate that is chiefly in the business of producing and airing television programs. Information on the production plot and setting, key players such as directors, actors, production designers, and costume designers, and general descriptions of costumes are presented in this narrative survey. This work serves as a preliminary attempt to trace the provenance of costume sets in the collection of CCP and GMA Network. It may also awaken the need to document costumes as part of institutional collections.
{"title":"The Provenance of Selected Sets of Wardrobe in the Costumes Collections of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and GMA Network, Inc.","authors":"Elijah John F. Dar Juan","doi":"10.1177/15501906211072914","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211072914","url":null,"abstract":"Costumes play a significant role in theatrical and television practice as age, gender, socioeconomic status, occupation, and the setting and climate are shown through them. This paper will enumerate some of the productions in which the costumes are included in the collections of two organizations: the Cultural Center of the Philippines, a government arts agency for the performing arts, and GMA Network, Inc., a media conglomerate that is chiefly in the business of producing and airing television programs. Information on the production plot and setting, key players such as directors, actors, production designers, and costume designers, and general descriptions of costumes are presented in this narrative survey. This work serves as a preliminary attempt to trace the provenance of costume sets in the collection of CCP and GMA Network. It may also awaken the need to document costumes as part of institutional collections.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124733690","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-22DOI: 10.1177/15501906211052720
J.A. Pryse
The spread of COVID-19 has created numerous challenges in the field of archive management. Limited in-house office space, furloughs of personnel, and inconsistency, has highlighted the potential for the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center Archives (Center) to develop and implement improved accessibility measures to thousands of linear feet of material. Addition ally, the Center has found unique opportunities to collaborate with multiple academic institutions to propose large-scale digitization program exhibitions using the Center’s remote workflow model. One of the largest, most complex collections the Center has worked with during this time is the Political Commercial Collection (the Collection), which holds 119,000 film, audio, and videotape recordings of commercials aired between 1936 and present. It is the largest collection of political commercials in the world. The Center has developed a working pilot digitization project that has currently resulted in access to 16,000 digital videos for public researchers and over 10,000 available for on-line streaming during the pilot phase between April 16, 2020, and December 1, 2020. This paper presents the practical application of the Center’s simplified “Linear Reciprocity Workflow Model” to provide a systematic solution for digital and long-term preservation of complex collections. The Center has proven that limited personnel and reduced resources need not interrupt continued access to archival repositories.
{"title":"Practical Remote Workflow Solutions for Complex Digital Projects: Opportunities in a Pandemic","authors":"J.A. Pryse","doi":"10.1177/15501906211052720","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211052720","url":null,"abstract":"The spread of COVID-19 has created numerous challenges in the field of archive management. Limited in-house office space, furloughs of personnel, and inconsistency, has highlighted the potential for the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center Archives (Center) to develop and implement improved accessibility measures to thousands of linear feet of material. Addition ally, the Center has found unique opportunities to collaborate with multiple academic institutions to propose large-scale digitization program exhibitions using the Center’s remote workflow model. One of the largest, most complex collections the Center has worked with during this time is the Political Commercial Collection (the Collection), which holds 119,000 film, audio, and videotape recordings of commercials aired between 1936 and present. It is the largest collection of political commercials in the world. The Center has developed a working pilot digitization project that has currently resulted in access to 16,000 digital videos for public researchers and over 10,000 available for on-line streaming during the pilot phase between April 16, 2020, and December 1, 2020. This paper presents the practical application of the Center’s simplified “Linear Reciprocity Workflow Model” to provide a systematic solution for digital and long-term preservation of complex collections. The Center has proven that limited personnel and reduced resources need not interrupt continued access to archival repositories.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114810276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-31DOI: 10.1177/15501906211057164
Katelyn Trammell
{"title":"Book Review: Coming Home to Nez Perce Country: The Niimíipuu Campaign to Repatriate Their Exploited Heritage, by Trevor James Bond","authors":"Katelyn Trammell","doi":"10.1177/15501906211057164","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211057164","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"100 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123455457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-27DOI: 10.1177/15501906211052716
Sindiso Bhebhe, M. Ngoepe
Access is one of the fundamental purposes of archives as archives are preserved for use by the public. One can argue that archives that are not being consulted by the researchers may simply be referred to as “dead” or “irrelevant.” It is from this assumption that a comparative case study between National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), National Archives and Record Services of South Africa (NARS), and provincial archives in South Africa’ oral history units was carried out. The major objectives being that of how accessible are the oral history holdings of NAZ and NARS to the public vis-à-vis the traditional archives such as manuscripts among others and the impact of coloniality to access. Data was collected through interviews and observations including also document analysis. The discussion on collected data revealed a massive underutilization of oral sources which is not in tandem with the spirited effort put by both NAZ and NARS in collecting the oral histories of the once marginalized groups of people. Some of the recommendations offered were the adoption of ICTs especially online archiving and social media in providing access to oral history holdings to the public including coming up with access policies which are in line with the International Council of Archives’ (ICA) (2012) Principles of Access.
{"title":"Political and Socio-Economic Dynamics on the Access to Oral Sources at National Archives in Zimbabwe and South Africa","authors":"Sindiso Bhebhe, M. Ngoepe","doi":"10.1177/15501906211052716","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211052716","url":null,"abstract":"Access is one of the fundamental purposes of archives as archives are preserved for use by the public. One can argue that archives that are not being consulted by the researchers may simply be referred to as “dead” or “irrelevant.” It is from this assumption that a comparative case study between National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), National Archives and Record Services of South Africa (NARS), and provincial archives in South Africa’ oral history units was carried out. The major objectives being that of how accessible are the oral history holdings of NAZ and NARS to the public vis-à-vis the traditional archives such as manuscripts among others and the impact of coloniality to access. Data was collected through interviews and observations including also document analysis. The discussion on collected data revealed a massive underutilization of oral sources which is not in tandem with the spirited effort put by both NAZ and NARS in collecting the oral histories of the once marginalized groups of people. Some of the recommendations offered were the adoption of ICTs especially online archiving and social media in providing access to oral history holdings to the public including coming up with access policies which are in line with the International Council of Archives’ (ICA) (2012) Principles of Access.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123717984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-25DOI: 10.1177/15501906211052721
E. A. Wilson
{"title":"Book Review: Makerspaces in Practice: Successful Models for Implementation, Edited by Ellyssa Kroski","authors":"E. A. Wilson","doi":"10.1177/15501906211052721","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211052721","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124042204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-25DOI: 10.1177/15501906211052717
S. S. Chitima
Zimbabwe has a rich railway heritage that includes rail engines, wagons, coaches, trolleys, ticket rooms, rail stations, and tracks. The National Railway Museum of Zimbabwe (NRMZ) has a long history in providing railway transport and have contributed to the social, economic, and political lives of Zimbabweans. The NRMZ is the only institution that collects, preserve, and display railway heritage. This study investigates the effectiveness of the NRMZ in conserving railway heritage. This study employed qualitative research methodology. It is revealed that railway collections are deteriorating at unprecedented levels. The major agents of deterioration include relative humidity, temperature, pollution, pests and rodents as well as human factors. The study concludes that the NRMZ is employing ineffective conservation strategies and the museum is likely to lose more collections if they do not prioritize preventive conservation, develop collections, and disaster management policies.
{"title":"“Engines and Wagons”: The Challenges and Options of Conserving Railway Heritage","authors":"S. S. Chitima","doi":"10.1177/15501906211052717","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211052717","url":null,"abstract":"Zimbabwe has a rich railway heritage that includes rail engines, wagons, coaches, trolleys, ticket rooms, rail stations, and tracks. The National Railway Museum of Zimbabwe (NRMZ) has a long history in providing railway transport and have contributed to the social, economic, and political lives of Zimbabweans. The NRMZ is the only institution that collects, preserve, and display railway heritage. This study investigates the effectiveness of the NRMZ in conserving railway heritage. This study employed qualitative research methodology. It is revealed that railway collections are deteriorating at unprecedented levels. The major agents of deterioration include relative humidity, temperature, pollution, pests and rodents as well as human factors. The study concludes that the NRMZ is employing ineffective conservation strategies and the museum is likely to lose more collections if they do not prioritize preventive conservation, develop collections, and disaster management policies.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"2015 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121524981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-25DOI: 10.1177/15501906211052715
K. Tzortzi
Museums are real places that in a dematerializing world offer an encounter between visitors and tangible objects. With the shift of museum buildings away from recognizable types to heterogeneity and experimentation, as well as the greater emphasis placed on the visitor’s engagement with the museum, the issue of the role of museum architecture in relation to the collections it is designed to accommodate has become a key challenge. This paper argues that museum buildings as organized spaces can contribute to constructing meanings and become part of the distinctive experience of the collections each museum offers. It analyses three archeological museums with newly built or extended buildings, that experiment with novel ways of presenting their collections, and shows how the tension between visitors’ paths of movement and lines of sight can become the conceptual spine of the museum displays and stage the presentation of archeological objects. Three modalities of staging are identified, suggesting a critical shift: from emphasis on a theoretical concept, to attribution of symbolic meaning, and then to embodied, sensory and affective contextualization. This is argued to reflect the “experiential turn” in museums and the increasing understanding of meaning as being grounded in our bodily experience.
{"title":"Constructing Meanings: The Museum as a Stage Set for the Presentation of Archeological Collections","authors":"K. Tzortzi","doi":"10.1177/15501906211052715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906211052715","url":null,"abstract":"Museums are real places that in a dematerializing world offer an encounter between visitors and tangible objects. With the shift of museum buildings away from recognizable types to heterogeneity and experimentation, as well as the greater emphasis placed on the visitor’s engagement with the museum, the issue of the role of museum architecture in relation to the collections it is designed to accommodate has become a key challenge. This paper argues that museum buildings as organized spaces can contribute to constructing meanings and become part of the distinctive experience of the collections each museum offers. It analyses three archeological museums with newly built or extended buildings, that experiment with novel ways of presenting their collections, and shows how the tension between visitors’ paths of movement and lines of sight can become the conceptual spine of the museum displays and stage the presentation of archeological objects. Three modalities of staging are identified, suggesting a critical shift: from emphasis on a theoretical concept, to attribution of symbolic meaning, and then to embodied, sensory and affective contextualization. This is argued to reflect the “experiential turn” in museums and the increasing understanding of meaning as being grounded in our bodily experience.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130180037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-01DOI: 10.1177/1550190620981028
Tory L. Schendel
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, museums, archives, and historical organizations are actively collecting material documenting these unusual times. The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science is one of the institutions active in this contemporaneous collecting. While this type of collecting follows in the footsteps of previous local efforts to document atypical times, I am no longer of the opinion this type of collecting—rapid response—should be doctrine or an expectation for 21st century curators. This article addresses the importance of democratizing trends in the museum field and allowing the curator, or person taking on the responsibility of collecting, to evaluate if one is truly capable of pursuing this type of collecting.
{"title":"Stewardship and COVID-19: The Preservation of Human Experience","authors":"Tory L. Schendel","doi":"10.1177/1550190620981028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1550190620981028","url":null,"abstract":"During the current COVID-19 pandemic, museums, archives, and historical organizations are actively collecting material documenting these unusual times. The Evansville Museum of Arts, History & Science is one of the institutions active in this contemporaneous collecting. While this type of collecting follows in the footsteps of previous local efforts to document atypical times, I am no longer of the opinion this type of collecting—rapid response—should be doctrine or an expectation for 21st century curators. This article addresses the importance of democratizing trends in the museum field and allowing the curator, or person taking on the responsibility of collecting, to evaluate if one is truly capable of pursuing this type of collecting.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134580215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-01DOI: 10.1177/1550190620980732
H. Handley, Kayla Harris
As the field of higher education began furloughs and layoffs to alleviate COVID-19 budget concerns, cultural heritage workers were directed to clearly demonstrate how their work contributes to institutions’ educational missions. Although physical library and archival collections were deemed inaccessible and less critical during the pandemic than ebooks, electronic journals, and digitized special collections, the two special collections projects considered in this case study demonstrate the value of continuing collections management work remotely and the relevance of student employees and other contingent workers in libraries and archives. The projects—one an inventory and bibliography of books acquired from a defunct religious library, and the other a review of digitized audio cassette tapes with little content information outside of the audio itself—enabled the retention of student workers facing few summer job opportunities and ineligibility for unemployment insurance, providing additional experience as well as compensation during an economic, as well as public health, crisis.
{"title":"Retaining Opportunities, Completing Key Projects with Remote Student Employees During COVID-19","authors":"H. Handley, Kayla Harris","doi":"10.1177/1550190620980732","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1550190620980732","url":null,"abstract":"As the field of higher education began furloughs and layoffs to alleviate COVID-19 budget concerns, cultural heritage workers were directed to clearly demonstrate how their work contributes to institutions’ educational missions. Although physical library and archival collections were deemed inaccessible and less critical during the pandemic than ebooks, electronic journals, and digitized special collections, the two special collections projects considered in this case study demonstrate the value of continuing collections management work remotely and the relevance of student employees and other contingent workers in libraries and archives. The projects—one an inventory and bibliography of books acquired from a defunct religious library, and the other a review of digitized audio cassette tapes with little content information outside of the audio itself—enabled the retention of student workers facing few summer job opportunities and ineligibility for unemployment insurance, providing additional experience as well as compensation during an economic, as well as public health, crisis.","PeriodicalId":422403,"journal":{"name":"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals","volume":"60 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131705282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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