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  • 1.  Are museum created plaques considered artifacts?

    Posted 08-13-2026 08:46 AM

    Soldiers & Sailors' Hall of Valor program honor veterans, living and deceased, for valor "above and beyond the call of duty" while in action against the enemy.  Once a year, a ceremony is held to induct new honorees. Currently there are more than 700 veterans that have been inducted into the Hall of Valor. A plaque is created, from the official military documents, for the ceremony and then hung in the Hall of Valor,  then replaced with the new class of inductees.  The previous inductees, that is represented on the plaques,  are stored in our archives.  

     

     

    Should these plaques be considered museum artifacts? If so, should they be cataloged within the museum system?

     

     

     

    With appreciation and best wishes,

    Lisa M. Terrano, MA

    Collections Manager

    Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum Trust, Inc.

    Honor Them With Your Presence

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     CLICK ABOVE FOR TOUR INFORMATION

    4141 Fifth Avenue                                           

    Pittsburgh, PA  15213

    412-621-4253 Ext. #214 - office

    Email: Lisa@soldiersandsailorshall.org

    www.soldiersandsailorshall.org

     

     



  • 2.  RE: Are museum created plaques considered artifacts?

    Posted 08-18-2026 09:26 PM
    I believe they should be preserved!  If they were important enough to be inducted they are important enough to save for future generations to read about and admire. 
    I'm sure there are some amazing stories on those plaques.
    Alice Baker
    Interim Administrator 
    4602 Fort Street
    Pascagoula, MS  39567
    228-471-5126 (Museum)
    228-623-7255 (Cell)





  • 3.  RE: Are museum created plaques considered artifacts?

    Posted 08-19-2026 09:04 AM
    Edited by Katie Andril 08-19-2026 09:05 AM

    Hi Lisa,

    We consider items like that part of our internal archives rather than our proper collection, so they are catalogued and findable in Past Perfect if, say, a curator wanted to use them in an exhibit, but don't have to go before our collections committee. We have our main collection/archives, which are accessions approved by the board and have all the usual museum collections rules and standards around them, and then we two secondary collections, our internal archives and teaching collection, which staff can add to without board approval and have somewhat laxer rules (eg. the teaching collection items can be touched, staff can also decide to remove things that have outlived their usefulness, etc.). Both are designated in Past Perfect with a prefix on their ID# (IA for Internal Archives and K for teaching). Many of these items are findable in our collections search online, so they can still be useful to researchers and curators, or for a case like yours, the family would still be able to pull up their loved one's plaque even if it's no longer on display.



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    Katie Andril
    Collections Coordinator
    Jewish Museum of Maryland
    Baltimore MD
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