by Sara Spitz
Hi! I’m Sara, an international student from Canada completing my Master’s Degree in Museum Studies at the University of Glasgow. Part of my program involves a 20-day work placement at a Scottish heritage institution, and in response to North Lanarkshire Council Museum’s description of their extensive cinema collection in need of attention, I requested for my placement to be with NLC. Here I will describe the responsibilities I’ve taken on, and the research project I’m currently planning.
The aspects of Museum Studies and museum work that I am most interested in are collections management and research. I was excited at the opportunity to practice both of these in this placement: rationalising a collection of artefacts involves studying their purpose and history, as well as determining value based on their rarity or condition, so as to keep the collection in organised ‘working’ (i.e. accessible, useful, and safe to handle) order.
Inside the storage facility at Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, there are 5 large roller racks (see figures 1 and 2) overflowing with cinematic-related paraphernalia. Everything from 100+ year old cameras, projection equipment, sound amplifiers, and microphones to usher’s uniforms and plush red velvet seats from the interior of local theatres fill these shelves. Such comprehensive collections can be used to demonstrate past cultural practices or to illustrate the progression of technologies, but in order to do so the individual objects must be better understood and carefully inventoried.
The cinema collection has been compiled into an inventory using Microsoft Excel, and my first task was to consult this spreadsheet. Because the NLC collections are so vast and varied, the cinema collection has not been a recent priority and as such this spreadsheet has not been updated for several years. Many of the artefacts have been moved from their recorded storage locations – this can happen when items are taken for exhibits, loans or even research purposes, but are not returned to their correct places.
Some objects have comments on the state of their condition, others have notes saying they are rare, duplicates or homemade, exemplary pieces or commonly manufactured materials. I started by spot-searching the spreadsheet for such terms as ‘candidate for disposal,’ ‘rust,’ ‘poor condition,’ ‘asbestos,’ and ‘mould,’ and creating a new spreadsheet out of the items highlighted by this search. This spreadsheet can be used as a reference point for deaccessioning (the official process of removing artefacts from the inventory) and disposals within the collection of items that are hazardous, beyond repair or redundant. The next steps in this process will be to review the NLC collections management policies and to suggest updates to their deaccessioning and disposals procedures which will include writing specific clauses for hazardous materials. Part of this process will involve researching those items which are best represented or most numerous in the collection. This step is important in determining which pieces are uniquely valuable and should be repaired, if possible, and which are best suited to disposal because they are repeats or else poor examples.
Simultaneously with my consultation of the inventory, I was asked to help locate (and update the recorded placements of) specific items in the collection that will be gathered into an upcoming exhibition being held at Motherwell Heritage Centre. In doing so, I came across vinyl records with braille labelling as well as a hearing aid designed for use in the cinema (see figure 3). I also found records of numerous cinema fires started by projection equipment and nitrate film reels, in addition to exit signs and seating indicators. There were old interview transcripts with local cinema proprietors, pamphlets and newspaper clippings that all described and attested to the sociocultural significance of the Scottish cinema in the early 1900s. Collectively, these items got me thinking about disability and accessibility in the context of something as socially relevant as the cinema in the 20th century – which has been the inspiration behind my upcoming research project.
So far this placement has been an enjoyable and interesting combination of research, digital organisation and auditing, and learning how best to capitalise on the limited time frame in which I will be working on these tasks. There is so much to be learned from the assortment of cinema equipment and ephemera, and plenty more stories to be told through these artefacts. I’m grateful to be contributing to the rationalisation of this collection.
Sara Spitz has been conducting her placement with North Lanarkshire Council focusing specifically on our cinema collection. She is completing her Masters in Museum Studies at the University of Glasgow. Alongside her studies, she volunteers at the National Museum of Rural Life in East Kilbride.