Proposed: 11 Feb 2025
Adopted:
If you have older family items and are considering donating them to the Historical Society, please review the NCHS Collections Policy.
While we wish we could accept every item, we do not have the space.
Introduction
The Nemaha County Historical Society has been collecting and preserving elements of the history of Nemaha County, Kansas since its formation in 1976. In 2011, the historical society established the Military Temple of Honor in the former Masonic Temple. To achieve our purpose of collecting, preserving and sharing Nemaha County history, the society collects and preserves artifacts and information that document the Nemaha County heritage, including the military service of its citizens.
However, our resources to accept, process, and preserve artifacts are limited. We only have so much time, space and money to maintain our collections. For this reason, the Collection Policy lays out criteria that must be considered for any item offered to the NCHS.
Types of Collections
Permanent collection: The permanent collection will consist of materials that support the mission and objectives of the NCHS. These materials, including artifacts, photographs, manuscripts, textiles, ephemera, oral histories. The Curator and Collections Manager have primary responsibility for the permanent collection.
Education collection (also known as the reproduction/prop collection). The education collection will consist of materials that have value for instructional or exhibit purposes but are considered expendable or replaceable. Items in the education collection may not accessioned.
Reference collection. The reference collection includes both published and unpublished secondary source material, photographs, ephemera and research papers. Reference collection materials are housed in the archive area in Annex 1.
Military Collection: The military collection will consist of uniforms, objects, photographs, manuscripts, oral histories, scrapbooks, and unit histories that help tell the stories of the Nemaha County Veterans.
Considerations for Accepting Donations
The collections of the Nemaha County Historical Society shall be limited to materials of significance to Nemah County’s history or the history of its citizens. Materials appropriate to the collection must meet the following criteria:
Geographical –Materials created or used in Nemaha County, or which have a direct connection with historical events that occurred in Nemaha County, or which have a direct connection with residents of Nemaha County.
Provenance or Personal Story – An object in our collection should help tell a story. Who created or purchased it? Who wore it? What were they doing? How did you (the donor) acquire it?
Condition – If an item is truly falling apart and too fragile to be handled, or has a mold or pest concern, we cannot accept it.
Size or Volume – Large objects – Large objects (like furniture or farm equipment or many boxes of records/archival materials) require a great deal of space to properly store. At this time, we accept very few large objects into the collection.
Duplication – To make the best use of our resources, we generally do not accept items for donation that are already well represented in the collection.
Collecting Plan
In order to manage resources responsibly, the NCHS shall not acquire materials that constitute excessive duplication within the collection, for example, schoolbooks or newspapers.
Deaccession Policy
Deaccession Policy All accessioned items shall be retained permanently by the historical society as long as they retain their physical integrity, identity, authenticity, and as long as they remain relevant and useful to the goals and collection policies of the Archives. Deaccessioning of items may be considered when these conditions no longer prevail or if the society should receive similar items in better condition.
Loans
Incoming loans will only be accepted for short term exhibits, study, or documentation.
Occasionally a collection item may be loaned to another organization for temporary display. Such loans must be approved by the Board of Directors. No artifact or other loaned material may be permanently altered in any way.
Appropriate documentation of incoming and outgoing loans will be kept.
Ethics
The Nemaha County Historical Society shall not give appraisals for the purpose of establishing the tax deductible value of gifts to the Society. The donor must seek outside appraisal, and is responsible for any appraisal fees and expenses.
Personal collecting by Society employees and members of the Board of Directors should not conflict with the professional collecting of the Society. When collecting, employees and Board members must always consider the needs of the Society in terms of exhibition and research purposes over their own personal needs.