Workshop Recap: Practical Approaches to Deaccessioning

By Hannah Kirkpatrick

We had a wonderful time gathering members of our Activating 21st Century Local History cohort in April for our first spring workshop, “Practical Approaches to Deaccessioning”. We were joined by staff and volunteers from a few additional museums and local historical societies, with 15 participants from 7 organizations.  

Deaccessioning, the removal of an object from the permanent collection, is a normal part of the life cycle of a museum's collection. Objects that don't fit a museum or historical society's mission, or which is in poor condition may be good candidates for deaccession. Because local historical societies are often run entirely by volunteers with no formal collections training, it's been historically difficult for them to turn away donations from well-intentioned community members, leading to organizations with overwhelming collections that might be a better fit for the mission or collection of a different museum or local historical society.

This workshop included Vermont Historical Society staff members Gail Wiese and Katie Grant as well as Joe Perron of Merrill’s Auctioneers & Appraisers and Callie Raspuzzi of the Bennington Museum. They spoke on a range of topics, from processing archives and evaluating museum collections to the process of selling deaccessioned objects at public auction. Our group spent 6 hours together discussing all aspects of this process and asking thoughtful questions of these experts.

All of the workshop participants, including our cohort members, arrived with an understanding of the deaccessioning process and ready to deaccession the “lazy objects” from their collections. Deaccessioning the pieces that are not serving the mission – for example, an object made and used in a completely different town than where the local historical society is located – can help us focus our resources on the objects that tell amazing stories about the specific communities we serve.  

This workshop dug deep past the basics. While looking at examples of objects that our participants were considering for deaccession, we discussed what an object's next steps might be if their organization’s board members approved deaccessioning it. Would it be best to ask another museum if it would be a good fit for their collection and, if they said yes, to transfer it to them as a gift? Or do we sell the objects at public auction and use the funds to directly support acquisition of more relevant objects and care of the collection? There are other concerns as well: if the object is deaccessioned because it poses a danger to staff (such as books with arsenic-dyed covers or gunpowder) or to other collection objects (such as wooden tools with mold problems) the methods in which we dispose of those objects will vary depending on the situation and conditions.

Another topic was exploring the ethics of deaccessioning and disposal of a collection's items. Having strong ethical practices is a key part of holding objects in public trust and maintaining a good reputation for your museum or local historical society.  Most collecting institutions should have a conflict of interest policy that states that an organization's board members, staff, or volunteers should never acquire an object that has been deaccessioned from the collection they work with.

According to the Active Collections manifesto, “some objects support the mission better than others—not based on monetary value or rarity, but based on the stories they tell and the ideas they illuminate. The ones that provide the most public value should get the largest share of our time and resources.” Anyone who’s visited a local historical society and heard a longtime volunteer tell a great story about an unassuming object on display knows this is true. Deaccessioning is one way to make space for even more of these truly special objects and make sure they get the care they deserve – and it can give the deaccessioned pieces a second chance at life in a new home!  

It was a fantastic and celebratory day, kicking off a summer of work guided by Active Collections principles. We’re so grateful to be able to continue this work through the end of the Activating 21st Century Local History training program’s first year, thanks to the generosity of multiple donors including Marilyn Blackwell, and Lola van Wagenen & George Burrill.

You can learn more about deaccessioning in our Online Resource Center, which is being updated this week with resources from this workshop. Contact program.coordinator@vermonthistory.org with any questions.