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Donating to Museums


GreatHoatzin

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I was reading through some posts talking about members' donations of fossils to museums, and was wondering how I would go about this, if/when I believe I have discovered something notable. Are there specific dates where fossils can be brought in to be evaluated, or do I  contact the museum or staff by email? The ROM is the closest museum to me, and I would appreciate if I could find out more about their system.

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16 minutes ago, GreatHoatzin said:

I was reading through some posts talking about members' donations of fossils to museums, and was wondering how I would go about this, if/when I believe I have discovered something notable. Are there specific dates where fossils can be brought in to be evaluated, or do I  contact the museum or staff by email? The ROM is the closest museum to me, and I would appreciate if I could find out more about their system.

You can just call or email I believe.

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*Frank*

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FB003 is correct - best to e-mail or call the source directly.  ;)

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21 minutes ago, FB003 said:

You can just call or email I believe.

 

8 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

FB003 is correct - best to e-mail or call the source directly.  ;)

Thank you!

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If you call the main museum number and let them know you are interested in talking with someone about a potential fossil donation I'm sure they can find an appropriate contact to direct you to or can take a number and have someone call you back. It might take a bit of time to get directed to the proper party but it will be worth the effort. Communication after that will likely be in the form of emailing images of the fossil material or possibly popping over for a visit if you are not too distant.

 

If you've got something that would benefit their collection (and the appropriate collecting information) they may well be interested in your fossil material.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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I speak as a museum guy now. 

People contact me all the time with potential donations.  The main things I look for are two-fold:  1) Is it a fossil that fits our goals? (primarily focusing on Wyoming fossils, but also looking to fill gaps in the collections) and 2) does it have good provenance data?  This second is more important than folks think.  I also tell people that once they donate to a museum, be it the Tate where I work or anywhere else, the specimen(s) become part of the museum's permanent collections and no, you cannot have it back 30 years form now when you move into a bigger House and finally have room for your donated collection. 

 

Additionally, don't expect the museum to put your fossil on display.  Most donations are not display-worthy, but may be collections-worthy and museums generally do not change displays too often and when they do, they do not do so to focus on donated fossils.  Having said this, some museums do have a dynamic (oft-changing) display of "Recent Donations".  I always tell potential donors all of this as well as topics such as we may not accession everything, meaning a boxful of fossils donated may not all end up in collections: some donations may be used for donations to local kids or science teachers, and some stuff is just not worth our time and space and may end up in the trash or the gift shop.      

 

Having said all that, I do accept a large number of the proposed donations and our collections have been greatly improved because of donations.  Especially our minerals collection.  But I also have turned down boxes of baculite pieces from "somewhere north of town".  

 

I suggest you email someone at the ROM and include a few good photos of your potential donation.  Photos help a lot from my end.   The ROM has huge collections from all over Canada, including lots of local inverts (I was just there three weeks ago).  Can I assume you are hoping to donate an invertebrate fossil?  I can hook you up with the folks in charge of vertebrates, but I do not know the invert folks there.  

 

Hope this helps.  Feel free to PM me if you want to discuss this a little more. 

jpc 

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39 minutes ago, jpc said:

Can I assume you are hoping to donate an invertebrate fossil?  I can hook you up with the folks in charge of vertebrates, but I do not know the invert folks there.

I do not believe I have anything that would be worth the museums’ time at the moment, but my hunting grounds are mainly invertebrate territory and I would assume anything worthwhile will be an invertebrate of some kind (although there is potential for some fish).

Thank you for your offer and I will let you know if I find anything interesting!:D

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Great to hear that you are thinking ahead. Take to heart JP's comments about keeping good collection information on any specimens you might in the future see fit to donate. Keep a collecting logbook with you and record dates, GPS location, formation, etc. Great fossils with no provenance greatly diminishes their scientific value. ;)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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If you collect from private land, a lot of museums won't accept specimen donations unless you can provide written permission by the landowners to collect and to keep/donate what you find on their land.  For example, I've had to provide written landowner permission for every donation that I've made to the Smithsonian, in Washington, D.C., collected on private land.

 

I typically find the researchers first, that are interested in studying my specimens.  Then I donate the specimens to the museum that they are associated with.  This helps ensure that a museum wants to curate my specimens and that the specimens will be studied at some point (maybe a paper written), versus just winding up siting in a box on a shelf in a storage area of the museum.

 

Marco Sr.

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When I gave something to a museum I first look, which one is the best (regional Collection? special Collection?). 2nd I often who works on fossils like the one I like to give away (sometimes a museum farer away would be the best). Thereafter I contact the collection manager, this person is normally the one who knows it. Or gives the contact to a department-leader.

Perhaps a special german way, our museums are full of donations and often (don´t think they like it, but they have to do...) they throw parts away or sell it in the museum shop...

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2 hours ago, rocket said:

Perhaps a special german way, our museums are full of donations and often (don´t think they like it, but they have to do...) they throw parts away or sell it in the museum shop...

We often get posthumous donations from the family who wants to see Uncle Fred's collection go somewhere and free up that room in the house. Often these collections contain useful fossils (even better when there is good collection data accompanying the fossils). There are often less scientifically useful pieces that bulk up a personal collection. I believe the FLMNH is prohibited from selling spare fossil material or profiting in any way from the donations but we do often earmark materials for fossil packages given away STEM teachers for use while teaching paleontology classes.

 

The FLMNH recently worked with a bunch of STEM teachers from around Florida in a workshop providing novel ideas for lesson planning. One project was using a free web-based neural network AI which can be trained to recognize shark teeth (in particular to distinguish megalodon teeth). Complete and partial megs were donated as source material distributed to these teachers. One step was to see how incomplete of a meg tooth could still be positively identified once the neural net AI had been trained on complete meg teeth. This was a great way of making use of fragmented teeth. There are always uses beyond adding to the collection for fossil material. If the intent is to donate something that will be used to further fossil research by the museum, then looking for researchers doing active work with a certain class of fossils and contacting them before a donation is a much more efficient way (as Marco points out) of making sure the fossil material will be actively used in research and not just take up shelf space.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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