Hazardous and poor condition items – our difficult decisions

As you may know from our introduction to the Folk Decant Project, and thus the 'For Folk Sake' blog, we are currently undertaking a review of our social history collections. This involves assessing these items against a series of criterion including the current collections development policy, condition, hazards, any duplicates within the collection and the potential for engagement, education and research. This gives us an opportunity to learn more about our eclectic collection, whilst also finding new homes for the objects which are more relevant to alternative museums – this means items that have been in store for years with no Gloucester relevance would potentially get shown somewhere else where they are more relevant. 

Part of this assessment, carried out by several different staff members and local volunteers, is checking the condition, such as how stable the item is and how much it has deteriorated. This is done by numerous people, before assigning it a level of condition. Some items in the collection have such poor condition, such as an item that is actively disintegrating, that we do not have the capacity to conserve it. We have c.750,000 objects within the collection and we have to prioritise conservation for items in the collection that it would make a difference to. For instance, attempting to rescue an item completely deteriorated and covered in rot would mean rescuing a semblance of the item it used to be, rather than conserving an item that needs stabilising and restoring and which is able to be on display. We also prioritise items in line with our Collections Development Policy, i.e. items that are relevant to Gloucester. If an item is already beyond the remits of conservation we may have to consider disposals. This will only happen after a condition assessment has been carried out and checked by several members of staff and volunteers, before being approved by more senior management. Sometimes the condition of the item is also a hazard to health, in which case disposals are considered the only option. Disposals are carried out in tandem with the Museum Associations guidelines on disposals and ethics.  

We have unfortunately come across several hazards in the collection, including poisons, asbestos, severe rust and rot/mould. The procedures for deciding the fate of hazardous items are similar to items found to be in poor condition. There is a number of people whom we consult with before making this decision, but ultimately if the item poses too much of a risk and is considered hazardous we will remove the hazard. This sometimes means a bottle may have the contents removed but the bottle remains. Other times it means that we dispose of the whole item due to contamination or the severity of the hazard. We dispose of all hazardous items responsibly. 

These decisions are not taken lightly, and we will endeavour to ensure that all items are carefully considered and all options looked into before deciding to dispose of any item. We will also notify any donors so that we continue to be transparent and open about this. We continue to look after the collection items in our possession according to best practice.