Museum shedding surplus stocks

Years of generous donations have left Warkworth District Museum with an embarrassment of riches in some of its departments, including multiple versions of the same item in many cases.

As a result, and in a bid to free up display and storage space, volunteers have been reviewing outdoor and “big shed” stocks and devising ways to return or relocate any artifacts that are surplus to requirements. Some of the most common duplicates include scythes, swingletrees, maize shellers, wire strainers, hay knives and horse head collars.

Manager and curator Victoria Joule says that while the museum appreciates and is grateful for donated items, from time to time an overhaul is needed to make space and improve display areas.

“We want to stress to the community that we are not just recklessly getting rid of items in our collection, that’s certainly not the case,” she says. “And also we don’t want to put off people from donating to us.

Our priority is still to accept and keep anything that has real significance to the local area, and its old families and businesses. We are just trying to be more selective about what we accept into our collection now, so that we don’t find ourselves with lots of the same thing.”

She says that where they already have multiple duplicates of an item, they identify two or three examples that they would like to keep for display, then try to contact the donors or families of the rest to see if they would like them returned.

“Where possible we are returning items to their families, some of whom have agreed to take them back, while others have suggested we dispose of or sell them for the museum. For the items we cannot find donors for, we are now advertising to the community to get in touch if they have proof of a claim to something (for example, a museum receipt, or paperwork).”

After this process, any remaining items will be offered to other regional museums in a bid to keep them in the public domain. Then, after the museum has exhausted all possible avenues, any remaining items will be sold where possible to raise funds.