Preserving the Past
When I wrote Strategic Air Command in the United Kingdom in 2018, I was fortunate to include dozens of previously unpublished images taken by Brian Baldwin more than 50 years earlier. I had never met Brian, nor was he aware of my book in progress. It was only through the random intervention of mutual friend Graham Luxton that we were virtually introduced. Brian’s lack of technical expertise meant that his younger friend Darren Currie had to scan the images which happily found their way into my book, to the delight of both author and readers.
This type of fortuitous connection, however, is in danger of disappearing altogether. As the “Greatest Generation” of Second World War veterans rapidly approaches its final curtain, and the “Baby Boomer Generation” that followed is increasingly aged, their personal recollections and collections are at risk of being lost altogether.
Photo 1. Brian Baldwin with his camera. Author
As these individuals pass on, family members face the daunting task of what to do with boxes of seemingly random photographs, military decorations, documents, books, artwork, uniforms (both military and civil), unpublished memoirs (on paper and saved as personal computer files) and various ephemera. Without guidance at a very difficult and emotional time, there is tremendous risk that these items will find their way into landfills as so much unappreciated (and therefore unwanted) trash.
What Is to Be Done?
Thankfully, efforts are underway to address the preservation of historically significant and irreplaceable materials. At the corporate and organizational level, the Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative (AAAI), led by The National Archives and the National Aerospace Library/Royal Aeronautical Society, is committed to the preservation, accessibility, and use of aviation and aerospace archives in the United Kingdom. Globally, many individual museums and academic institutions bear responsibility for coordinating the preservation of materials. These important efforts, however, focus on what to do with items after they have been accessioned by formal agencies. You can play a crucial role in how to deal with materials before they are donated—or dumped.
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Perhaps you know someone with a large collection of Kodachrome slides, aviation books, airline timetables, or uniform items. Or perhaps you know someone with just a small box of sepia-tone prints taken of Great Uncle Thaddeus next to his Sopwith Camel or of two men with the words “Grandpa met Wilbur” scrawled in pencil on the back. Your ability to educate the owners of these materials or serve as a resource to their families can mean the difference between saving historically significant materials and seeing them thrown unceremoniously into a skip prior to an estate sale.
So It Begins
What follows are broad-brush guidelines you can share toward planning and carrying out donations of items from private holdings. These are by no means exhaustive, and any legal issues should be referred to an appropriate competent professional.
The process starts by asking a fundamental - if difficult - question:
Photo 2. B-25 nose art from a shoe box stashed in a garage. Author
“Say, Robert, what do you plan to do with those thousands of airplane photographs, hundreds of aviation books, and dozens of linear feet of historical documents, not to mention multiple hard drives filled with pdfs, jpegs, and e-mails? You know your wife and adult children have no desire or place to keep them, nor do they have any idea what to do with them.”
“Well, I was thinking about donating them.”
“Where?”
“Uhm……”
Aye, Hamlet, there’s the rub. Who would want them and under what conditions?
The donation process begins with identifying prospective recipients. This is often the most challenging step, as many potential repositories are unknown to donors or their families. ou are probably more aware of these or have contacts who are, so word-of-mouth is a good start. A “donate aviation” web search yields many museum websites for donations, including locations in the United States such as the Planes of Fame Air Museum’s “Donate Your Artifacts”, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s “Donating to the Archives”, and regional venues such as the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire’s “Donate an Item”. All have clear guidance on how to proceed.
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​Flexibility and adaptability in deciding where materials might be donated are essential, even to the point of considering more than one beneficiary. Seattle’s Museum of Flight may be keenly interested in my extensive photo and document collection of the 820 KC-135s built by Boeing in nearby Renton, but would have little use for my Cold War aerial reconnaissance photos and documents, perhaps a better fit for the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.
When contacting prospective recipients by e-mail or phone, have a clear statement of what will be donated. “A bunch of boxes of color slides” is far less helpful (and certainly less appealing) than “several thousand original Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and Fujichrome slides, each dated and labeled, of general-aviation aircraft taken between 1946 and 1974 throughout the UK and Europe.”
Photo 3. Is this box of color slides marked ‘stuff’ important? Author
This clarity will also determine the suitability of the material for the recipient. An extensive collection of mint-condition South American airline timetables from the 1930s, however significant, will be of little interest to the National Museum of the US Air Force.
Be prepared to authenticate the provenance of the material, its history of ownership. This is crucial for two key reasons: to establish the owner’s legal right to donate the material and to verify that it is indeed what it’s claimed to be. “All of the images are originals taken by me and not second-hand duplicates” or “the uniform belonged to my grandfather, who flew Short Empires for Imperial Airways” each go a long way toward showing that the materials are legitimate and not imitations unsuitable for archival preservation or display. ​Equally important is the physical condition of the items, especially books, clothing, and ephemera. The passage of time obviously incurs normal wear-and-tear on an object, but being closer to its original condition makes it more appealing. Indeed, a museum may wish to replace a tattered Great War flier’s cap currently on display with a better example received from a recent donor.
How the materials have been stored at home is similarly important. ​Items kept in a basement or shed over 30 or 40 years may be subject to damage from insect infestation, mold, or moisture, all reducing - even eliminating - the value of the collection. One less-than-obvious rejection factor is long-term exposure to cigarette smoke. In each of these cases, no archive would accept material that would contaminate its own collection. If in doubt, inform the accessionist about the condition.
Photo 4. What to do with
hundreds of books and art?
Author
The amount of material should also be specified. A complete collection of Koku Fan magazine from its first issue in 1952 through 2002 is certainly impressive, but creates real problems. Aside from the language barrier, that’s 600 issues filling 30-some boxes each weighing 50 lbs. Shelving these may be impossible for most archives, and shipping them would cost hundreds of dollars which an archive is unwilling to pay. Conversely, a single issue of Koku Fan, unless it coincidentally fills a missing volume of an existing archival collection, is of little interest.
Money is not simply an issue associated with getting a donation to a recipient. For donors there is often an (unrealistic) expectation of remuneration for a collection. It is extremely rare for museums and archives to pay for a donation. If a donor seeks a tax deduction for the material, it must be properly appraised (in the US this is typically not required for collections valued at less than $5,000) - a process which recipients are unwilling to provide as an understandable conflict of interest. The cost of an appraisal can be daunting, not to mention the time involved and the need to find an appraiser qualified in the subject. Generally speaking, unless the donated material is especially rare, unique, or voluminous, any anticipated reward for the donor or their family should be in the form of a “good feeling” that the items will be preserved rather than discarded.
To the surprise of many prospective donors, some archives and museums will not accept a donation without an accompanying monetary contribution, however modest. “What, you want me to pay you to take this stuff off my hands?” With organizations already short staffed, the time-consuming accessioning process simply cannot be undertaken without covering the cost of personnel who inspect and catalogue each item (don’t count on the good will of volunteers), proper storage containers, preparation for display, and other archival requirements. Recognizing that not all of a collection might be retained after accessioning, a beneficiary could opt to sell portions as part of ongoing fund-raising efforts - that lone issue of Koku Fan might end up on the $1 table at the museum’s gift shop. Similarly, an archive might charge for each use of an image to recoup costs associated with finding, duplicating or scanning, and then sending the image.
Now What?
With potential beneficiaries contacted and donations agreed upon, the next step is to share this information with those responsible for carrying out the contribution process. A statement of intent is both simple and essential. This can be in the form of a letter stating what is to be donated, as detailed a summary of the material as possible, and to whom. Relevant correspondence should be appended to this letter showing financial or logistical obligations associated with the donation. Any restrictions to access or use of the collection should be clearly stipulated. A memoir, for example, might be withheld from public access until the author’s 120th birthday to avoid any potential adverse reactions to its contents. Similarly, a donor might reasonably expect that the material be credited “From the Collection of…” or be otherwise recognized, if practical.
For especially large donations, a statement of intent or Deed of Gift is best incorporated as part of or as an appendix to the donor’s will. Seeking the advice of a legal professional will ensure that the process is properly sorted and all expectations clearly articulated. For images and textual material, release or assignment of copyright is critical. To avoid familial acrimony, any next of kin (or executor) should be advised and preferably in agreement well in advance about the material to be donated.
Managing Expectations
As the third generation of my family to serve in the military, the decorations, photographs, war records, and uniforms worn by my grandfather in the Great War, my father in the Second World War, Korea, and Vietnam, and by me on global reconnaissance flights and in desert storm all have deep personal meaning and value to my family. It isn’t clear, however, if my father’s Silver Star for heroism at the battle of Lôc Ninh in 1967 is of sufficient historic interest to merit its donation to the National Museum of the US Air Force, where similar decorations are commonplace. Given that he was awarded the medal for flying a de Havilland C-7A Caribou under withering hostile fire, it might be appropriate to donate it to the Museum of Aviation at Warner Robins, GA, where he lived for 40 years after retiring and they have a C-7A on display.
In your efforts to inform potential donors or their families about the process, it is crucial to manage their expectations that what is important to them may not necessarily be of sufficient historical merit for preservation, particularly at marquee venues. Conversely, what is stashed away in an old shoe box in a guest room closet may be profoundly significant and deserves careful handling and preservation. You have the opportunity to facilitate the conversation about disseminating personal collections well in advance of an abrupt and uninformed need to empty a house at a difficult time. Indeed, working now with a potential donor provides them with the reassuring satisfaction that their life’s work will be treated with the respect it deserves.
Photo 5. Deeply personal, but
is it significant? Author