Objects Left on the Doorstep – What Next?

This account, from Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, of dealing with donations and recording the provenance of collections all sounds very familiar

Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

Do you have an object you’d like to donate to a museum? Derbyshire Museums Manager, Ros Westwood explains why it’s not as simple as bringing it in and handing it over, or in the case of one recent attempted donation, leaving it on the doorstep!

You’ll have seen the notice outside the charity shop: ‘Please don’t leave bags on the doorstep’. The same applies to any museum. There is good reason, not just that the bags are a trip hazard.

Almost the first thing that happened at the museum in 2023, even before the museum opened, was someone leaving 4 bags of ‘stuff’ on the doorstep. This is unusual. People who want to give something to the museum usually talk to one of the collections’ staff first.

A watercolour painting of Topley Pike in 1923 by Karl Hagerdorn. Even though this picture has remained in the artist’s family collection since…

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