[ARC5] US Army Signal Corps Museum

[Bart Lee]

Re donating radios etc. to museums:

Alas, many "museums" are run badly, understaffed, under-funded, and subject
to negligence and theft. So it's important to find a good museum, not
subject to these issues.

In the art world, once an object is "accessioned" by a museum,  it takes a
special process to "de-accession" it for sale or other release. Many art
museums these days are doing that to raise funds -- all-too-often to buy
politically-correct and "woke" art to satisfy various claimants.

Unless a donor makes a special and specific contract with the museum, the
museum has the power to do just about anything with anything in its
collection.

At CHRS, a donor of an object or archival item signs a Deed of Gift.  It
reads:

"Please complete this Deed of Gift and return this form to "CURATOR" at the
above address. I or we: [type or print name] have delivered and hereby
convey, transfer and give to CHRS absolute and unconditional ownership of
subject objects and/or images and/or recordings and/or writings and
archives and/or books, magazines and ephemera and the like physical and/or
intellectual property described below and on any attached sheets, together
with all copyright (in all media by means or method now known or hereafter
Invented) and associated rights and all other legal rights therein which I
or we have now or may after-acquire and I or we acknowledge that CHRS may
retain, collect, curate, copy, renovate, display, modify, analyze,
disassemble, transfer, sell or dispose of the subject gift as it may think
best.  Please provide all available history and documentation of the object
(please attach)."

So, trust the museum management, now and in the future, or don't donate to
it. But consider that the alternative is usually the dumpster, or at best
an estate sale dispersing carefully collected and often restored and
conserved objects of great cultural, artistic and/or technical and
engineering merit.

See www.californiahistoricalradio.com and www.SoWP.org ...

On the East Coast, see: www.antiquewireless.org/homepage/

73 de Bart, K6VK ##
-- --
Bart Lee,K6VK, CHRS Archivist and Fellow, AWA Fellow, ARRL Liaison

Texts only to: 415 902 7168

www.bartlee.com

{Bart(dot)Lee(dot)K6VK(at)gmail(dot)com}
<http://www.lawforhams.com/>



On Thu, Feb 17, 2022 at 11:46 AM Martyn Google <martyn.seay at gmail.com>
wrote:

We have similar stories and problems here with museums selling or loosing
> items, precious to their donors. Even cutting a unique TV camera in half to
> show the inside!
> The reality is,  If you donate an item, you are giving it to the
> organisation and as they are now the legal owner they are entitled to do
> what they like with it. Unfortunately!
> Martyn, ZL3CK (New Zealand)
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 18/02/2022, at 8:17 AM, Roy Morgan <k1lky68 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> That experience is all too common, enough so to prevent any of us from
> donating.
>
> The (now late) chief photographer of the National Portrait Gallery told
> with anguish that the Gallery had sold their exquisite painting of the
> fisherman hauling  a huge fish into his wave-tossed boat.
>
> Did they REALLY need that half million dollars?
>
> Roy Morgan
> K1LKY Western Mass
> K1LKY68 at gmail.com
>
> On Feb 17, 2022, at 12:43 PM, Steve WD8DAS via ARC5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> wrote:
>
> I used to think that donating to a museum was a good way to preserve an
> historical artifact.
>
> . . .
>
> I was soured by several experiences over the years.
>
> ***
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