This is a question I've often asked myself too. I don't even have any
family (except my wife) - so there's little chance of my own collection
going anywhere sensible, unless I can come up with a contact - 

Whilst I cannot offer any definitive solution to the dilemma, I can add a
few items to ponder... and possibly an answer...

Any collection is only as good as the provenance documentation that goes
with it - please to be providing all the documentation you can. A list
comprising - where, dates, memoirs, references, pictures, sketches, notes
etc. 

Also, having come into posession of some partial collections, myself, -
labels on everything, please! That lump of undistinguished grey rock may be
your pride and joy, but will be used as builder's rubble if no one knows
that it's part of the meteorite which demolished a suburb of wherever.

If you will a collection to a Museum, they will almost invariably require
that the collection come with a bequest large enough to cover the cost of
storage space - Museums are not (generally) that interested in the sort of
stuff *we* are interested in.

Perhaps, here, you might like to consider contacting specialist
organisations - caving clubs or mining-history/restoration groups (like
this one). Maybe someone knows someone who might be able to arrange
something, whenever.

In the category of contacts, and failing all else, maybe someone on your
contact list would be willing to take over your collection (adding it to
their own), and to pass it all on at a later date... this is how many of
the larger collections and archives got started in the first place.

Lastly, on the subject of documentation - anyone reading this post will
probably use a computer for their documentation. Don't *rely* on a computer
for collection documentation - the computer will be re-formatted before
anyone even thinks about your collection. Hard-copy kept with the material
of your collection is best - if you include a CD-archive of your documents
then that is great (they only last between 2 and 12 years, though), but the
hard-copy will remain readable for many years, even if the computer has
been re-formatted and passed on to the great-nephew or whatever. Or you
might find someone willing to archive your data on their own machine (in
return for a reciprocal service).

Perhaps someone should start a "mining/mineralogical/geological bequest"
contact list? Volunteers, anyone? (D*mn, it looks like I'll have to do it,
then....)

Anyone who would be interested in 'subscribing' (not a mailbase though)
might like to contact me direct (rather than clog up the mining-history
mailbase), and if there is sufficient response, I would be willing to start
it off.


Regards,

Paul Ellison <[log in to unmask]> or <[log in to unmask]>

+++++++++++++

Donations of mineral specimens, mining memorabilia, artefacts and just
plain junk gratefully accepted. Rock-lovers always welcome.<grin>

+++++++++++++



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From: John Gibson <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: How best to dispose of one's collections
Date: 06 June 2000 17:31

Without wishing to introduce a morbid note to the exchanges on this
mailbase, I'm pondering a question my wife put to me the other day when I
returned from various underground forays in and around Nenthead with a
couple of rolls of undeveloped film and a few bits of mineral: "What are
you going to do with all these mining things?" (i.e. when I go to that
great stope in the sky).

Many of us will have perhaps a lifetime's collection of photographs, books,
mineral specimens and mining paraphernalia, and not all of us will have
children who wish to inherit them - I've two teenagers myself but they have
no interest in mining. And like many fellow enthusiasts, I've got thousands
of photos (mainly transparencies) of mines all over the UK, above and below
ground, loads of books (I dare say none of them particularly rare but the
collection is pretty comprehensive), mineral specimens and a dozen miners
lamps. My photos are probably of average quality - I'm no expert, but they
do form a record of sites that have changed a lot in thirty years, or which
have disappeared altogether.

It would be nice to think that these could go to someone who appreciated
them (while they are important to me, I guess the average museum or archive
might find them pretty unremarkable) but how do you identify such a person
or organisation? The last thing I would want would be for them to be wasted
.. any ideas?

Yours in hope of a good few more years yet,

John



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