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 Labels for outgoing loan crates

Angela Burgio's profile image
Angela Burgio posted 01-08-2025 04:08 PM

Hi all,

I am reaching out to the community for advice regarding sending outgoing loans to a borrowing institution. If the crate has numerous old shipping labels on it, what does your organization do with these labels? Do you keep the older labels on the crate and temporarily cover them each time the crate is sent to another institution? Do you attempt to remove them and keep them in an object folder? The old shipping labels are great for collection history, but I don’t want them to confuse future art shipping companies each time the crate is sent out.

Best,

Angela Burgio

Collection Registrar

Mott-Warsh Collection

Flint, MI

Amy Thompson's profile image
Amy Thompson

If you are maintaining loan files, you are already capturing this information in regards to an object's history. At the most, if you wish to record the shipping label in association to a loan, then photo document it and attach it to the loan file, or photocopy it and put that representation in the physical file. Assuming these have an adhesive backing, you would be expending space in your files for an unstable label that requires some type of encapsulation or barrier. In a sense, you are trying to elevate a shipping label to collection level care.

Remove the labels from your crates, you do not want loan items arriving to the wrong destination.