What is "Museum Quality?"
We get over a hundred calls a year form people interested in donating objects to the Galt Museum & Archives. The calls always start with a pitch about the objects. Usually, the first words uttered by the caller are “I’ve got an old-old-old thing…” and sometimes that is followed up with “…it’s museum quality.” But what is museum quality?
Some people think that objects that are in pristine condition are “museum quality.” That can be true, but it really depends on the relationship between the object and the donor. In this video, Collections Technician Kevin MacLean explains the difference between two “museum quality” items, a pristine model airplane from the Lethbridge Prisoner of War Camp and a 1960s “Punkinheads” teddy bear from Eatons. The plane was stored on a closet shelf for decades to ensure that it did not break because it was so meaningful to the child who received it, while the other “was loved so much, so intensely, so directly, for so long that it literally screams ‘I’ll be loved more than you ever will.’”
Please keep telling us that your potential donations are “museum quality,” but think of it less in terms of its physical condition, and focus more on its cultural quality. That’s the usefulness of the object as a tool to help tell the story of Lethbridge and southwestern Alberta.
You can check out each of the five objects highlighted in this video at the links below: