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  • 1.  Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 07-21-2022 03:24 PM
    Question: Are there any brick and mortar museums that have the interest in math artifacts and have the space to become the recipient of the International Slide Rule Museum archives?

    The International Slide Rule Museum  (ISRM)  is the world's largest free digital repository of all things concerning slide rules and other math artifacts and ephemera.
    ISRM is an IRS 501(c)(3) (A57 - Science and Technology Museums) non-profit corporation through the State of Colorado. Colorado ID Number 20181884948, IRS EIN 83-2486423. The on-line museum was created by myself back in 2003  and has been actively involved in the preservation of these math instruments that were used in the worldwide technological advancement over the last 400 years before the advent of the digital electronic calculator. If the reader graduated from school before 1977, you would have encountered them in your trig or physics classes. There are 

    To the point: The ISRM collection consist of over 2000 unique physical specimens, which to the uninformed might all look the same, but have variances in makers, design, manufacturing and materials. It has been  one-man's work-of-love that has become very difficult to maintain and organize, as new artifacts are gifted to ISRM quite often. My work as the ISRM curator is to assign accession numbers to all new donations or acquisitions, scan the slide rules , cut and paste the images into a composite image, then create an entry in the respective gallery on the website using HTML. I have a backlog of several hundred slide rules waiting to be scanned and posted. 

    An important aspect of my mission is to honor and memorialize the owners of these artifacts, when a provenance is know, as the person should be more important than the tool they used in their career. Slide rules gifted by families, with a known provenance of an ancestor, are preserved as a heritage donation and will never be sold. 

    I am now 75 years old, and have been diagnosed with health and physical issues , that could affect my performance as a curator in the future. It is best to address these issues now, rather that in the future when I may be  incapacitated (or dead). and cannot help with deaccessioning the collection. I could use an intern, obviously, for moving things around, but a larger aspect is making the site more mobile-friendly as young people migrate from desktops to laptops to tablets and smartphones.  I have meet with a voluntary board of advisors weekly and these topics always come up.

    I am more than willing to help assist in the design and organizing of displays, as has been done in the past for temporary venues. Have pickup, will travel. See what was done in the past sliderulemuseum.com/SR_Displays.htmI
    This display ran for a month in 2012 in Boulder Colorado
    A one-weekend setup and takedown of a traveling exhibit uses photographs slide rules and electronic slide rule calculators. Becky Konshak organizes the display.


    Thank you for your advice, concerns, support and consideration.

    ------------------------------
    Michael Konshak, curator
    International Slide Rule Museum
    1944 Quail Circle
    Louisville, CO 80027
    +01 303-921-8709
    http://www.sliderulemuseum.com

    Member:
    American Association of Museums
    Association of Northern Front Range Museums
    Oughtred Society
    United Kingdom Slide Rule Circle
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 07-21-2022 05:19 PM
    Edited by Layne Borden 07-21-2022 05:19 PM
    Michael,

    While your archives don't really fall in line with our collection at the Swedish American Museum, we do work closely with a University that already has an extensive archive and a very active math department. They don't have anyone on the forum, would you like me to reach out and ask if this would be something they'd be interested in? It's not really the brick and mortar museum you were asking for, but it would be open to the public.

    If not, no worries. Just an idea.

    ------------------------------
    Layne Borden
    Administrative Assistant
    Swedish American Museum Association of Chicago
    Chicago IL
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 07-22-2022 09:28 AM

    Hi Michael,

    Given that these are actually a form of computer, I wonder if one of the computer museums might want to add them to their collections. There are several such museums in both the US and UK.

    Chuck

     

    image015.jpg@01D83873.13869050

    Chuck Stout | Curator 

    (he/his) 

    cstout@wingsmuseum.org | 303.360.5360x106 

    7711 E. Academy Blvd. Denver, CO 80230

    wingsmuseum.org

    image002.png@01D76ED1.6AD679E0image003.png@01D76ED1.6AD679E0image004.png@01D76ED1.6AD679E0image005.png@01D76ED1.6AD679E0image006.png@01D76ED1.6AD679E0image007.jpg@01D76ED1.6AD679E0

     

     

     






  • 4.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 07-22-2022 09:54 AM
    The MIT museum has a significant slide rule collection and may be interested in some of yours. The last time I was there, they had a wonderful hands-0n slide rule demonstration. They may also be able to put you in touch with others who may be interested in helping to transition the collection to new stewards. 

    Good luck!

    Guy

    ------------------------------
    Guy Hermann
    Museum Insights
    Long-range Planning for Museums
    http://www.museuminsights.com
    guy@museuminsights.com
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 07-22-2022 02:55 PM
    Hi Michael,

    Are you aware of the National Museum of Mathematics in New York City?
    About - National Museum of Mathematics

    My best guess is that they would not be interested in taking in your collection - wonderful as it is, I don't think it fits their mission - but there's an obvious subject affinity, so they may be able to make some informed referrals.

    Regards,
    Brian

    ------------------------------
    Brian Mattlin
    New York NY
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 07-22-2022 03:37 PM
    I am hoping that of the hundreds of curators on this forum, someone will step forward. I have gifted slide rules to the Smithsonian Math history museum, MIT and the Computer History museum in the past. They are all overloaded (I think).

    ------------------------------
    Michael Konshak
    Curator
    Louisville CO
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 07-25-2022 02:28 PM
    Perhaps contact the Computer History Museum? They're in Mountain View,
    CA - I haven't been there since ages ago, but it seems like they'd be a
    good fit.

    https://computerhistory.org/

    Judy




  • 8.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 08-04-2022 01:45 PM
    Edited by Layne Borden 08-04-2022 01:45 PM
    Michael,


    Fairfield University was interested in taking over the Slide Rule Museum. Do you have an email address that I could use to help get you in contact with them to go over specifics?

    Thanks,


    ------------------------------
    Layne Borden
    Administrative Assistant
    Swedish American Museum Association of Chicago
    Chicago IL
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Posted 08-04-2022 03:18 PM
    On Aug 4, 2022, at 11:47 AM, Elaine Borden via American Alliance of Museums <mail@connectedcommunity.org> wrote:
    Michael, Fairfield University was interested in taking over the Slide Rule Museum. Do you have an email address that I could use to help get... -posted to the "Open Forum" community

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    Re: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection
    Reply to Group Reply to Sender
    Aug 4, 2022 1:45 PM
    Elaine Borden
    Michael,


    Fairfield University was interested in taking over the Slide Rule Museum. Do you have an email address that I could use to help get you in contact with them to go over specifics?

    Thanks,


    ------------------------------
    Layne Borden
    Administrative Assistant
    Swedish American Museum Association of Chicago
    Chicago IL
    ------------------------------
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    Original Message:
    Sent: 8/4/2022 1:45:00 PM
    From: Elaine Borden
    Subject: RE: Finding a permanent home for the International Slide Rule Museum collection

    Michael,


    Fairfield University was interested in taking over the Slide Rule Museum. Do you have an email address that I could use to help get you in contact with them to go over specifics?

    Thanks,


    ------------------------------
    Layne Borden
    Administrative Assistant
    Swedish American Museum Association of Chicago
    Chicago IL
    ------------------------------