Similar to Carole's tale, I picked up a collection for the Carnegie a
number of years ago. The estimate was 10-15,000 lots. All specimens were
carefully numbered, and if too small, in vials that were numbered. Yes, as
you may guess, there were labels with only a few lots (about 1000-1500)
and when the person who put this collection together died, the note books
were discarded before a family member was able to pick up the collection.
Thus, a collection 30 years in the making was reduced to mere curios with
a single decision made by someone cleaning out his library. The lots that
still had labels were mostly specimens that he purchased or received in
trade from other collectors.

The second part of the tale is that we were not the original museum
contacted regarding this collection. The first museum was a childrens
museum and they felt material of this sort were not what they needed. They
recommended that the family contact us to see if we would be able to use
the collection.

Lessons to be learnt:
1) Have a catalog but also included the information with the specimens
2) Plan for your collection if you no longer can take care of it either
through illness or death
3) Contact those who will receive it (museum, COA, individual, dealer) so
they can work with you to make a future transfer as smooth as possible.

Regards,
Charlie
******************************************************************************
Charlie Sturm, Jr
Research Associate - Section of Mollusks
                     Carnegie Museum of Natural History
                     Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Assistant Professor - Family Medicine

[log in to unmask]


On Thu, 29 Jul 2004 [log in to unmask] wrote:

> In a message dated 7/29/04 6:04:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
>
> > >But, no matter what course is chosen, the collection should be well
> > >cataloged NOW!
> >
> > True, as you might be run over by a bus tomorrow... no joke.
> > Cataloging is insurence.
> >
>
> AND!!!!!!  The label and catalog information MUST remain with the shell. I
> know of a scientifically valuable collection from someone who recently passed
> on. Her collection was to the nth degree with collecting data IN A NOTEBOOK and
> not with the shells. Well, you guessed it, she passed on, her collection was
> dispersed to the winds and all the data was lost. What a waste of a finely
> catalogued collection.
>      Carole Marshall
>

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