Types of Collections in the Humanities
Historical collections
- History museums, historic houses, sites and societies account for more than half of the nation's small museums
- Collections vary widely in size and scope (local to national significance)
- Often collects based on historical value, not necessarily monetary value
- Includes paper-based collections (newspapers, correspondence, records of historical significance) along with photographs, negatives, and material culture
- Increasing move to collect contemporary objects (tomorrow's history) and to tell more diverse stories (stories of people whose material culture hasn't been collected traditionally)
- Setting vary from full collections storage facilities to historic houses
- Some have buildings which are artifacts in themselves (historic preservation)
Anthropological collections
- Vast quantities of diverse and often fragile or perishable materials (often organic and inorganic combined in the same object)
- Often research oriented (esp. in university settings and where part of a systematic anthropological collection)
- Relatively stable in size
- Growing demand and interest for exhibiting (concern about damage and wear)
- Growing legal and ethical concerns about responsible management (esp. of human remains)
- Growing concern for working with indigenous peoples in using, preserving, documenting and caring for ceremonial and sacred objects
- Archaeological collections - vast in quantity
- Constant expansion, esp. with government mandated excavations (current national crisis)
- Unusual storage and conservation concerns for underwater excavated assemblages and other concerns (desalination of pots, for example)
Art collections
- Characterized by the uniqueness of the objects
- Selected for aesthetic quality
- Generally smaller collections and slower acquisition rate
- Collections directions may shift, however, with changes in tastes and scholarship change (examples)
- High individual monetary value (recently also includes "ethnographic art" in market value)
(notes based on AAM Caring for Collections 1984)