Transitioning from Collectors to Conservators

[Ogami]

The LIbrary of Congress seems to me like a dark damp hole where information goes to die.

 

I would rather use the Smithsonian as my model.

[Dick Pontoon]

Have any of you ever considered eventually donating your unique, historically significant items from your collection to a museum or comic book collection of a library?

 

I'm working on something right now that decades from now, I'd hate to see split up and scattered to the four winds.

 

NY or DC needs a comic book museum.

 

I went to the Jack Kirby Museum in NYC the other week - it was a one-week "pop-up" museum on the Lower East Side. Once I went there, I realized that there is no way a full-blown Jack Kirby Museum is going to be an economic reality. Maybe a larger Marvel Museum backed by Disney money, though they would certainly marginalize Kirby's contributions for legal and other reasons.

 

Not to derail Ogami's thread, but I'd love to hear more about the pop-up museum. I was aware they were putting it on; how was the show?

[Dr. Balls]

b) give a man a fish, he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime

 

Thanks, Aristotle.

 

If your children become dependent on handouts, they'll become Americans!

 

[Ogami]

Have any of you ever considered eventually donating your unique, historically significant items from your collection to a museum or comic book collection of a library?

 

I'm working on something right now that decades from now, I'd hate to see split up and scattered to the four winds.

 

NY or DC needs a comic book museum.

 

I went to the Jack Kirby Museum in NYC the other week - it was a one-week "pop-up" museum on the Lower East Side. Once I went there, I realized that there is no way a full-blown Jack Kirby Museum is going to be an economic reality. Maybe a larger Marvel Museum backed by Disney money, though they would certainly marginalize Kirby's contributions for legal and other reasons.

 

Not to derail Ogami's thread, but I'd love to hear more about the pop-up museum. I was aware they were putting it on; how was the show?

 

Please.

 

This was just a think out loud sort of thread.

[Logan510]

Is this what you were focused on for the last 3 months?

[delekkerste]

Not to derail Ogami's thread, but I'd love to hear more about the pop-up museum. I was aware they were putting it on; how was the show?

 

I attended a talk they sponsored by writer/artist/comics historian Arlen Schumer about Kirby the "The Auteur Theory of Comics". The talk was excellent and informative, but the museum itself...sadly, not so much. The whole room was maybe 800-1000 square feet, of which the Kirby Museum folks rented out maybe 200-300 square feet at most - just enough room for some books/reference materials, a few photocopies of original art, a big poster of some Kirby-tech spaceship or something, and a timeline of Jack's time on the Lower East Side. All it really showed me was that there is a HUGE funding gap between where an effort like this is now, versus where it needs to be.

[vaillant]

I feel the same way Ogami does. (thumbs u

 

My love and interest for comics started when I was in pre-school years, and I have a quite peculiar collection, as I followed unusual lines of research.

I would like them to be kept together, at least by topic. My ongoing research/collection of italian inter-war comics is more focused, but as it has been said is primarily a cultural problem: as long as no library or the like is willing to seriously back up such an idea, it remains always a problem where your comics will end up, unless there is someone to pass them to.

[vaillant]

P.S. Sad to hear about Kirby. Hopefully little by little it will be realized how important it’s to value his work.

A Simon/Kirby section would be awesome, with a whole room dedicated to Captain America!

[Ogami]

Can you imagine entire rooms dedicated to characters that deserve the attention? And wings just for eras and genres.

 

The Underground Era Wing. With faux SF sidewalk of downtown...

[Bookery]

 

Never, ever, EVER donate collectibles to a library.

 

No matter how much the current curator loves the stuff, he/she will soon be replaced (library turnover is constant) by somebody who doesn't care about the material.

 

The library doesn't have any better storage conditions than you do (and probably a lot worse).

 

Most of it will never get around to being indexed or catalogued, much less organized in a way that someone can go through it.

 

The material will be handled by students for extra grade-credit who often have no concept of the value or the fragility of the items.

 

Most libraries have little real security when it comes to pilferage.

 

Eventually library funds will get cut, and someone will decide it's more important to install more computers than it is to pay to keep storing this stuff. If lucky, it will go out at a library sale sometime. If unlucky, it will just get tossed.

 

 

[Ogami]

Not even a library dedicated to the intended media?

[seanfingh]

Never, ever, EVER donate collectibles to a library.

 

No matter how much the current curator loves the stuff, he/she will soon be replaced (library turnover is constant) by somebody who doesn't care about the material.

 

The library doesn't have any better storage conditions than you do (and probably a lot worse).

 

Most of it will never get around to being indexed or catalogued, much less organized in a way that someone can go through it.

 

The material will be handled by students for extra grade-credit who often have no concept of the value or the fragility of the items.

 

Most libraries have little real security when it comes to pilferage.

 

Eventually library funds will get cut, and someone will decide it's more important to install more computers than it is to pay to keep storing this stuff. If lucky, it will go out at a library sale sometime. If unlucky, it will just get tossed.

 

 

[Bookery]

Not even a library dedicated to the intended media?

 

Probably not... though if it's a cornerstone of the library's reputation, then it may have more of a permanent status. Now I said library... a museum might be a different animal altogether, though again it would depend on the sources and dependability of its funding.

 

This isn't just my opinion... it's the opinion of nearly every rare book and periodicals dealer and conservator out there. And if you absolutely must donate your collection to a library... don't just stick it in your will. Contact the library well ahead of your demise... make sure they even want the stuff. then make sure if they require an ongoing grant to keep taking care of it.

 

PulpCon used to give lectures on why not to donate to libraries... but the old guys kept doing it nonetheless, feeling it made them "immortal" I guess. The problem is, unless you've arranged a permanent funding stream, this stuff just sits in boxes in a basement somewhere. Now and then a student will type a few things into an online or library-accessible index, though actually getting to see the item might be more problematic.

 

Eventually, there is a flood or a burst water-pipe, or mice, or something else that occurs in that dim rarely-visited basement... the collection is damaged or destroyed and eventually thrown away.

 

It was bad enough in the old days... but today's public libraries are all about digital... not about storing ephemera most of the people working there have no clue about. It's not their fault... it just isn't their specialty.

 

The specialized library famous for its collection may be a different story... but again, check first... if they are famous for their stuff, they probably have most of it by now. They may not need duplications.

 

Collectors, and yes, even dealers, are the true conservators. It is a sad and not very funny joke among them about how many truly rare books have been destroyed by libraries over the years.

 

[vaillant]

@Bookery: I did not mean donation to a library as it is commonly intended, but rather to a foundation or the like. It‘s clear that normal libraries ordinarily will end up tossing out stuff of value nowadays, not only comics (it happens constantly, and it is a good indicator on how little culture is properly understood).

 

In Italy the situation is not much better, I guess, but here and there it is possible to witness exhibitions using the library’s own material, but again they are a minority.

[Ogami]

Not even a library dedicated to the intended media?

 

Probably not... though if it's a cornerstone of the library's reputation, then it may have more of a permanent status. Now I said library... a museum might be a different animal altogether, though again it would depend on the sources and dependability of its funding.

 

This isn't just my opinion... it's the opinion of nearly every rare book and periodicals dealer and conservator out there. And if you absolutely must donate your collection to a library... don't just stick it in your will. Contact the library well ahead of your demise... make sure they even want the stuff. then make sure if they require an ongoing grant to keep taking care of it.

 

PulpCon used to give lectures on why not to donate to libraries... but the old guys kept doing it nonetheless, feeling it made them "immortal" I guess. The problem is, unless you've arranged a permanent funding stream, this stuff just sits in boxes in a basement somewhere. Now and then a student will type a few things into an online or library-accessible index, though actually getting to see the item might be more problematic.

 

Eventually, there is a flood or a burst water-pipe, or mice, or something else that occurs in that dim rarely-visited basement... the collection is damaged or destroyed and eventually thrown away.

 

It was bad enough in the old days... but today's public libraries are all about digital... not about storing ephemera most of the people working there have no clue about. It's not their fault... it just isn't their specialty.

 

The specialized library famous for its collection may be a different story... but again, check first... if they are famous for their stuff, they probably have most of it by now. They may not need duplications.

 

Collectors, and yes, even dealers, are the true conservators. It is a sad and not very funny joke among them about how many truly rare books have been destroyed by libraries over the years.

 

I see you've read Nicholas Basbanes.

 

I don't disagree with your thesis, but you're talking apples and I'm talking oranges.

[Bookery]

I see you've read Nicholas Basbanes.

 

Not familiar with him.

 

I don't disagree with your thesis, but you're talking apples and I'm talking oranges.

 

Then I guess I'm not following.

Never mind.

 

[Ogami]

I see you've read Nicholas Basbanes.

 

Not familiar with him.

 

I don't disagree with your thesis, but you're talking apples and I'm talking oranges.

 

Then I guess I'm not following.

Never mind.

 

I must have come across much more harshly than I intended.

 

I really enjoyed your posts. Google Basbanes. He's written multiple books on book lovers, collectors and the differences between library and collector culture. Your words sound as if they came straight from his pages. I think you would enjoy.

 

And we really are talking about two different things. I'm envisioning a library/museum dedicated to the comic book entirely. So, the perfect place for the material we are discussing.

 

[Bookery]

And we really are talking about two different things. I'm envisioning a library/museum dedicated to the comic book entirely. So, the perfect place for the material we are discussing.

 

As I said, a museum's a little different. I was just warning about the misfortunes of donating (as in a will) to libraries, which as I re-read your OP, is indeed a bit of a sidetrack. You're obviously planning things out in advance and have a specific forum in mind, I gather.

 

Actually, if I had wealth to squander, I would transform my shop into a combo retail outlet-museum. Though I would prefer I had the money to buy the contents myself, rather than accept donations. That way, if it ever had to be liquidated, or future generations weren't interested, it could be dispersed without any guilty feelings of having disappointed donors. I would love to arrange it chronologically-historically... arranging comics of a year or era with corresponding newspaper headlines, pulps, popular books, etc., to give a feel for how the comic inter-related with its time.

 

[Silver Surfer]

 

Perhaps a standing Comic Book Hall of Fame, similar to the Rock and Roll and Baseball ones?

 

I never went, but from the pictures that were posted, Geppi's museum in Baltimore was very much like a CB HOF, very heavy on the Golden Age.

 

If Geppi sets up a wing for signature series books then its the first sign of the apocalypse.

[seanfingh]