Open Forum

Has anyone ever had to store a small/mid sized collection of furniture and dec arts for a year? What was your solution? Is there a version of PODS that offer museum-level conservation control? 

 

Thanks!

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Laura Kilcer VanHuss
Curator of Collections

Oak Alley Foundation
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Hi

I would not use PODS to store furniture for a year - if left at the museum site they have no climate control - if taken to the storage facility items would have to be well packed on the container and I then a sealed container would be stored - sometimes the lack of air movement can cause trouble.

A regular climate controlled storage facility would be better.  Or you could send the furniture to be conserved while you are needed it stored - moving furniture is stressful - the fewer moves the better.  

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Richard Branyan
Director
Lower Lodge Conservation
Natchez MS

Original Message:
Sent: 10-15-2015 02:58 PM
From: Laura Kilcer VanHuss
Subject: Temporary Collections Storage

Has anyone ever had to store a small/mid sized collection of furniture and dec arts for a year? What was your solution? Is there a version of PODS that offer museum-level conservation control? 

 

Thanks!

------------------------------
Laura Kilcer VanHuss
Curator of Collections

Oak Alley Foundation
------------------------------

Be careful about commercial storage facilities.  I worked with a small historical society here in Texas in their rented, climate controlled storage facility.  We discovered that in the summer "climate controlled" meant that the temperature didn't go over 80 degrees or so which isn't necessarily the best for collection materials.  It has been several years since we did that and commercial facilities may be better, but double check what they mean by "climate controlled."

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Marian Ann Montgomery PhD
Curator of Clothing and Textiles
Museum of Texas Tech University
Lubbock TX

Original Message:
Sent: 10-16-2015 09:17 AM
From: Richard Branyan
Subject: Temporary Collections Storage

Hi

I would not use PODS to store furniture for a year - if left at the museum site they have no climate control - if taken to the storage facility items would have to be well packed on the container and I then a sealed container would be stored - sometimes the lack of air movement can cause trouble.

A regular climate controlled storage facility would be better.  Or you could send the furniture to be conserved while you are needed it stored - moving furniture is stressful - the fewer moves the better.  

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Richard Branyan
Director
Lower Lodge Conservation
Natchez MS

Like all museums, we have found ourselves with limited storage especially since we have been collecting since 1900. 

We were contacted by another public organization that wanted to donate to us an extremely comprehensive collection of a large company in our region (Uniroyal/Ball Band) that contained employee records, EPA information and legal documents, patents, images, etc.  Unfortunately, it was so large we didn't know where we could put it at this time, but knew we had to take it.

I ended up renting a 15' x 15' storage unit that is climate controlled with full security and met all the standards that we required.  We also have the inventory for the collection, so if needed we can go to the unit (~ 5 miles away) and pull what we need and bring it back to the museum. 

I have also worked at another museum that also had a large amount of their collection of furniture and similar large sized objects at an off-site storage unit that was very close to the museum. 

We do have all of the architectural plans, specs, land, and everything we need to start a new archives/collections storage building.  Now we are just looking at all of the ways we can do this capital campaign to raise the funds.  Hopefully our little storage unit will only have to serve us for a short period of time.

Hope this helps a bit!

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Brandon Anderson
Deputy Executive Director
The History Museum
South Bend IN

Original Message:
Sent: 10-15-2015 02:58 PM
From: Laura Kilcer VanHuss
Subject: Temporary Collections Storage

Has anyone ever had to store a small/mid sized collection of furniture and dec arts for a year? What was your solution? Is there a version of PODS that offer museum-level conservation control? 

 

Thanks!

------------------------------
Laura Kilcer VanHuss
Curator of Collections

Oak Alley Foundation
------------------------------