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Originally Posted by RDGAC
Speaking as someone who does work in a museum, I have to say that, while I sympathise - and while there are certainly, if only down to the law of averages, museum staff who neither care nor wish to hear enquiries from researchers such as you, for reasons ranging from utter idleness to indifference to matters military or plain ignorance - the majority of museums, certainly in this country, are perennially understaffed, underfunded, and struggling to catch up with themselves in the face of ever more legislation, ever growing collections, and in this time particularly, ever increasing financial stringency.
Yes, you are entitled to make enquiries. Yes, we are obliged to help enquirers out, to the best of our ability, wherever possible. The fact is, however, that when one has to juggle taking care of collections, dealing with day-to-day administration, attending to visitors and special guests, the tedious but important business of accessioning and organising, organising supplies for conservation and sales purposes, and a dozen other things besides, quite often an enquiry from a researcher, while not falling upon deaf ears, will slip to the bottom of the queue of priorities. If one has a dozen other vital tasks to perform, rummaging through archives to answer an obscure question posed by a curious researcher is quite likely not foremost in one's mind - a regrettable fact of life, to be sure, but a fact nevertheless.
I should therefore appreciate it if you would not malign us all as some variety of idle delinquents, incapable of doing our jobs or uninterested in doing so. If we at our museum receive an historical enquiry, we try to answer it as promptly and accurately as our limited resources will permit. I joined this forum purely for the purpose of learning about our collections, with this very eventuality in mind - as well as the obvious, and even more vital, point of preserving the collection we have as best I can. You may well be frustrated by the often dilatory (or indeed stationary) response you receive from museum staff; museum staff, in many cases, are just as frustrated by having to juggle sixteen balls while an accountant waves an axe at their heads. Kindly avoid condemning us all in one swift stroke.
Edit: And by the way, what a piece! I'm surprised to see a wheel-lock still clinging to the archaic approach of propelling darts, however; could anyone enlighten me as to why that approach should still have been taken so late in the day, so to speak?
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Hi RDGAC,
A well placed rebuttal, and I agree, as stated in my post.....not ALL museums are the same, nor are thier personnel, so your qualification of that is well noted. What Michael was expressing was a frustration in altogether too many instances where the bureaucratic dynamics that structure many museums have negated thier purpose in varying degree.
I would note here that your appearance here on our forum, and your postings have really presented important perspective in reevaluating how museum staff are often perceived, and it is wonderful to see the serious attention and pride you lend to your profession. I know that personally I am delighted in being able to talk with you directly with the fantastically provenanced items you have shared, and to see the genuine interest you show in accuracy in displaying them.
In defense of museums shouldering the financial and political burdens they carry, I think that the staff, as you note, overall do the best they can under the circumstances. However, I can attest to countless times through the decades I have researched, where my efforts to contact museum officials were shrugged off; and times I went to museums for a meeting and the individual simply did not show up, and worse no effort to notify me was ever extended. Many of us have tried to contact museum officials to advise of new information found to correct errors in holdings descriptions, only to be ignored dismissively.
In times where I have been involved in discussion with a particularly large museum, which I do not name here, my efforts to offer suggestions concerning a particular arms and armor form were almost curtly dismissed.
In other cases, similar dismissive comments were issued concerning the observations of myself and several others in the identification of an item, rather than instituting a productive review of the data.
So while I recall and note with considerable gratitude the many times through the years that individuals in and associated with many museums helped me; I cannot overlook the many cases mentioned where results were not so favorable. You are right, we cannot malign the industry or all involved indisciminately.......but we are concerned with the growing pallor of apathy toward weapons that seems to be permeating more generally themed museums.
Obviously the military basis in museums such as yours does not have this problem, so again, you are to be commended for your outstanding approach.
Thank you again for your postings!! and please keep them coming
All the very best,
Jim