Donate an Artifact
So you’d like to donate an artifact/item?
Thank you so much for your willingness to make a donation of an artifact, family papers, books, artwork, or other item to the Crawford County Historical Society! We have put together this letter to be sure your expectations and ours are the same when it comes to donations and how the Historical Society handles artifacts. We sincerely appreciate your help in keeping the history of Crawford County alive for future generations, and want to be sure we are serving you properly.
When you bring us an item-
When you bring an item in for donation, you’ll be given a “Deed of Gift” form to fill out. Just like a deed for a house, this form transfers the legal title of your materials to the Historical Society. It assures us that we own the item, assures you that we will manage these items in an ethical manner consistent with professional museum and archival standards, and gives you a receipt of donation that you can then take to your accountant if you choose to use this donation as a tax deduction. It also outlines that, if the item does not align with the Society’s mission or collection due to space limitations or other reasons, we may remove it from the collection in the future. This is a rare occurrence, as we would rather let you know in advance than make those decisions at a later date if at all possible. Please fill out the item description to the best of your ability, including titles, and stories that give the item context. With these stories, the item brings history to life…without them, it is just an antique in most cases.
What happens next-
Within a few weeks of donation, our archivist/collections director will review the donation and either a) accept it into the collection or b) alert you via email or phone that we cannot accept it due to space limitations, lack of connection to the Society’s mission, or being a duplicate to an item already in the collection. If this is the case, the items will be available for you to retrieve at your earliest convenience. Thank you again for doing your part to keep history alive in Crawford County!
