[NJARC] re: bar code scanners

[Alex Magoun]

Al,

 

If you and the club are planning to use the scanner to tag, register, and
track the locations of museum items, it would be sound museum practices to
ensure that the tags use a reversible adhesive, that is, one that can be
removed without marking the items.  This follows the standard curatorial
philosophy that items judged historic should be preserved in that state
without any further changes.

 

This may raise the question of how to describe all those restored pieces of
electronic equipment that have been recapped etc. since they acquired
historic status.  In that case it is sound practice to document each phase
of restoration, and if necessary go back to an item's original condition
upon the point of accession.

 

You'll see the same practices, or lack thereof, with cars, houses, the
U.S.S. Constitution (still registered in the U.S. Navy, and reportedly
lacking any original timber, oakum tar, canvas, or hemp) and Stradivarius
violins.  Dave Sica will remember that I argued strongly at the first Early
TV Conference that the earliest RCA TV camera should not be restored because
it, like the Fort McHenry stars and stripes and other items at the
Smithsonian, are unique icons that are best left cleaned, preserved, and
untouched.  All in favor of filling in all those holes in the star-spangled
banner, raise your hands!  All those in favor of restoring an All-American 5
without going to all that trouble, help yourself as long as somewhere
there's an original or well-documented restored version somewhere else.

 

Alex