Thank you for your interest in donating an object or document to the Lane County History Museum. Due to limited storage space, as well as an already large collection, we must be very selective in accepting additional materials. We appreciate your offer and will respond as soon as we have completed our review. Our review process is explained below the form.
PLEASE DO NOT TRANSPORT OBJECTS TO THE MUSEUM UNLESS AND UNTIL WE SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT WITH YOU.
If you do wish to offer an item to the Museum, please fill out the donate form below, or print the Acquisition Review Form (below) and mail, FAX or return the form to the Museum in person.
Donate Form:
We appreciate your interest in donating historical materials to the Lane County History Museum. The Museum would not exist without the generous and thoughtful gifts of donors over the years, since the Museum has no budget to purchase historical artifacts and archival materials.
The Museum (LCHM) has definite guidelines for acquiring new materials, which we would like to share with you.
• Any item accepted must have a substantial relationship to Lane County history, or must document Lane County history in some way. (This means the item was used in Lane County or by Lane County residents, or in some way reveals an aspect of life or business in Lane County that would be of interest to LCHM visitors and researchers.)
• If you have materials of historical significance that do not relate to Lane County, we may be able to suggest other museums or institutions that would be interested in acquiring them.
Any potential donation to the Museum goes through a process called acquisitions review, in which an Acquisitions Review Committee first considers the potential donations for relevance to Lane County history and our current collections. The committee also considers condition, size, conservation needs and storage space requirements.
Items must be in good condition, because LCHM does not have resources of staff to perform conservation or restoration work. Size is also a factor, since storage space is limited both in the archives and artifacts areas. We want to assure you that if the Acquisition Review Committee does not accept a donation, it does not mean that we do not value or appreciate the offer. Much as we would like to accept every donation, we are not able to do so.
DO NOT BRING ITEMS YOU ARE OFFERING THE MUSEUM UNTIL REQUESTED BY STAFF. Because our staff members are part-time, the appropriate staff member may not be here when you come in, and the Museum cannot take custody of materials until they are accepted with a written agreement.
We cannot offer appraisals for tax purposes (conflict of interest), or general estimates of value for historical materials. However, we can provide a list of licensed appraisers upon request.
Thank you for thinking of the Lane County History Museum.