Broad remit for museum acquisitions is restored
An updated acquisitions and disposals policy for the museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society restores its former comprehensive collecting remit following a four-year period in which collecting has been restricted to proprietary medicines, materia medica and items from the Society's history.
The revised policy was approved at the April
Council meeting on the recommendation
of the Science Committee. As well as reinstating a comprehensive collecting
remit, the policy update aims to reflect the museum’s current practice
and retain compliance with current and forthcoming national standards.
Among other things, it takes into account the features of a model acquisitions
and disposals policy required by the Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council’s accreditation standard, with which the museum will need
to comply from 2008 if it is to meet a new accreditation standard that
will replace its current registration.
The museum will continue to maintain its main focus in areas where it
is deemed to be the only British museum currently holding and regularly
updating a systematic connection. These areas are:
· Contemporary, recent and historical proprietary and other medicines,
including related promotional or other material of particular medical,
social or political historical significance
· Controlled Drugs, fulfilling all requirements necessary to the continuing
renewal of its licence to be in possession and authority to be in possession,
granted under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and Misuse of Drugs Regulations
1985 (as amended)
· Material evidence relating to the history and work of the Society
In addition, the museum will resume the collection of a full range of
material evidence including artefacts, images, historical and contemporary
artworks, and associated information relating to the history and practice
of pharmacy in Britain (in its broadest social, political, medical, scientific
and international context) and the development of the profession of pharmacy
in Britain.
Acquisition will focus particularly on areas that are currently under-represented
in the collection, for example, material dating before 1800 and after
1945, with special reference to contemporary objects.
In the case of medicinal or cosmetic preparations, the museum will collect
two examples of each item where possible, to allow the potential for
destructive testing in the future, to facilitate possible future research
while taking into account all ethical implications.
As well as reintroducing collection in all areas of pharmacy history,
the updated policy includes a specific statement that the museum will
formally decline offers of objects with a specific regional provenance,
advising donors to offer the item to the most relevant local museum in
preference to taking them out of their geographical or community context.
Other features of the updated policy include updated references to legislation
governing illicit trade, items that might be designated as treasure.
Also incorporated into the policy is new Government guidance on retention
of human remains in museums and a Museum and Galleries Commission statement
of principle on “Spoliation of works of art during the Nazi, Holocaust
and World War II period”.
Opening debate on the recommendation at the Council meeting, the President
thanked the keeper of the museum collection, Briony Hudson, along with
her team and the museum volunteers, for the quality of the museum displays
within the headquarters building.
Stephen Denyer, chairman of the Science Committee, said that it was a
privilege to be involved not just with what is going forward in the advance
of the profession, but with the bedrock on which that science was being
built. It was particularly pleasing to present the proposed new policy
from a position of anticipated measured growth in the museum after a
period of consolidation.
Answering a question from Douglas Simpson, Ms Hudson confirmed that there
was no intention to redistribute items already in the collection to regional
museums. But if the museum were offered items with local provenance rather
than national significance, then a local registered museum — one
with the same standards of care as the Society’s museum — should
be given first refusal. The community and local context was important,
particularly with material from a business or hospital that had been
in a town for a long period. The museums network meant that such an item
would not be lost to the Society. It could borrow items or advise an
inquirer where to go to research an item.
Sylvia Hikins said she felt privileged to walk through the building and
see the museum displays but she would love to see the museum reach outside
to the public more, promoting pharmacy and science, particularly among
young people.
Ms Hudson said that the museum’s terms of remit were as an education
and outreach resource. Among other things, it lent objects for exhibitions
in other museums so that they reached a wider audience. It regularly
worked with its neighbour, the Museum of Gardening History, answering
inquiries about medicinal plants and supporting it when it tried to add
a medicinal or pharmaceutical element to its work. The museum was also
working on medicinal plants with the Museum of Garden History and four
other museums of medical history as part of Museums and Galleries Month,
which is in May.
In terms of a schools audience, the museum hoped that the new displays
in the reception area would attract small groups, although it would have
to be by appointment. The museum had been working with local schools
and hoped to build on its contacts and accommodate further visits. In
the longer term, the museum would like to make more material available
for use at a distance, through material on websites and through the development
of published teachers’ packs.
Ms Hudson added that the Society had recently received a request from
Goldsmiths Hall, which this summer was to have an exhibition on two goldsmiths,
one of whom was the designer of the President’s chain. The President
had agreed to lend the chain for the exhibition.
Ray Jobling said that the museum was a tremendous asset to the Society.
He wished to emphasise that the areas currently underrepresented included
materials from 1945 onwards. That was now more than 60 years ago and,
with the NHS dating from 1948, it was a time of significant change. The
policy of collecting recent items was a sound one.
Andrew McCoig said that he was concerned that the policy might discourage
gifts or bequests from pharmacists who had something to leave that might
be of historical interest.
Ms Hudson said that there was a delicate balance. Every object collected
by the museum had resource implications. Once it had said “yes” to
an object, the museum’s role was to keep it forever, to add it
to a resource that the Society would keep in trust for the public and
members for the rest of time. Therefore, before accepting an object,
the museum had to be sure that it could store it safely and preserve
it. And it was also clearly not a good use of the museum’s resources
to have multiple examples of the same item.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal