What is our collection?
North Lanarkshire Council Museums & Collections celebrate the lives, history and heritage of those who lived and worked in this area of Scotland. We have six heritage sites across the county: Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre (NLHC) in Motherwell, Cumbernauld Museum in the Town Centre, Colzium House and Museum, Kilsyth Heritage and Shotts Heritage Centre.
We are currently working to make sure we have the best possible collection possible and can continue to deliver events and exhibitions. This means we have to be careful what objects we accept so please don’t be offended if we say no. We normally only collect things that have a connection to the North Lanarkshire area, and fill gaps in the collection. This way we make sure we’re capturing the very best of North Lanarkshire heritage.
How to offer an object to our collections
If you have an object you would like to donate to one of our North Lanarkshire Heritage sites here is the process:
Step 1: Contact a curator
Curators are the staff that plan exhibitions and help keep the collection at its best.
Our curators are:
Justin Parkes, Industrial History Curator.
You can contact him on 01236 856376 or email him at parkesj@northlan.gov.uk
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Sarah Cartwright, Social History Curator.
You can contact her on 01236 856374 or email her at cartwrightsa@northlan.gov.uk
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Rosie Shackleton, Assistant Curator.
You can contact her on 01236 856375 or email her at shackletonro@northlan.gov.uk
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When you get in contact with one of our curators, they will ask for you to give as much information as you can about the object and send over some images. This will help establish what the object is, what period it dates from, it’s local relevance and finally, whether we want to add it to our collection.
This is the most important step as it saves everyone time and helps us do extra research if need be. It will save you multiple trips to collect objects that we cannot accept into our collection, and it will make sure the curators are kept in the loop and can make decisions more easily. Curators will aim to respond to your enquiry within 10 working days.
Step 2: Drop off the object
If we are able to accept your object, you will need to drop it off either at Summerlee Museum in Coatbridge or North Lanarkshire Heritage Centre in Motherwell. Exceptions can be made for larger objects or on a case-by-case basis. You will have already arranged a date and time with one of the curators during step 1 and they will meet you there to take the object.
Step 3: Fill out an Object Entry Form
An Object Entry Form is the first bit of paperwork for any object we accept. We will ask you to fill it out giving your contact details, all the information you know about the object and whether it is a donation or a loan. There are three copies of an Object Entry Form: a white one (this is our copy and is filed away), a pink copy (this is your copy to take home) and a blue copy (this goes with the object so we can identify it).
So, what happens next?
The next step for the object is for it to be accessioned. This means it will be given a unique identifying number and added to our permanent collection. Depending on what the object is, we will then find a space for it in either our Industrial History Store or Social History Store at Summerlee or in our archive at NLHC. We will eventually photograph your object and it will be added to our online collections page. Your object can now be used for research, be the subject of blogs and articles, be shared on social media and used in exhibitions!
Disclaimer:
We cannot provide any form of valuation for any objects.
We cannot guarantee that your object will be put on display.
Please be aware that once we formally accepted your donation it becomes part of the museum collection on a permanent basis and cannot be returned to you.
For general enquiries please email museumcollections@culturenl.co.uk
For more information and to view our online collection visit http://www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk
Thank you!