Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2018 11 28

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I la city Om Louisville COLORADO • SINCE 1878 Memorandum To: Historical Commission From: Bridget Bacon, Museum Coordinator Date: Nov. 20, 2018 Re: Staff recommendation to deaccession item from Museum collection Background: In 1989, Andrew Deborski donated three Cardox shells to the Louisville Historical Museum. Cardox shells are steel shells charged with compressed carbon dioxide and used to break up coal seams. This blasting technique came into use in the 1930s. The Cardox shells that were donated are heavy cylinders that are about 4 %2 feet long and about 3 inches in diameter. These Cardox shells were accessioned into the collection and were given the object ID numbers of 89-42-01, 89-42-02, and 89-42-03. The same year, the Louisville Historical Commission decided to loan one of the Cardox shells (#89-42-02) to the Lafayette Miners Museum. Due to this having taken place nearly 30 years ago and due to meeting records not being available, additional details about the arrangement are not known. (Decisions about the collection were made exclusively by the Commission at that time, as the City of Louisville didn't hire a Museum staff member until 1999.) Also, it is believed that there was not a collection policy before 2002. At some point before 2004, the other two Cardox shells that had been donated were put on exhibit in the Jacoe Store with other mining equipment, and they are still on exhibit there with explanatory information of how miners used them. In 2016, the Louisville Historical Museum adopted a Collections Management Policy that states the following: "Although the Museum staff and Historical Commission may in the future decide that the Museum may engage in incoming or outgoing loans and adopt a policy to govern such loans, at this time the Museum shall not participate in either incoming or outgoing loans." This policy may be revised in the future if there is a desire to loan out collection items or borrow collection items from another institution and if appropriate loan procedures and requirements are adopted. Today, museums are generally discouraged from engaging in incoming or outgoing without clear provisions agreed to in writing by both parties relating to ownership, liability, and insurance. The Lafayette Miners Museum has had the Cardox shell at its museum location since 1989. In October 2018, a member of the Lafayette Museum staff contacted me to bring to my attention that the Lafayette Museum has this item as a "permanent loan" from the Louisville Museum. This photo shows the shell as the long item in the back, on exhibit in the Lafayette Museum: