Match making Reuniting objects and object numbers

By Faith Nolan, Inventory Assistant, National Museum of Ireland

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that when dissociation happens, an object number must be found.

What is dissociation?

During the life of a museum object, it is possible for it to become separated from its identifying information. This could be caused by major catastrophic events such as earthquakes, floods, or fires, which damage or destroy records, or even the objects themselves. Another cause could be simple change over time leading to the physical breakdown of object labels, or the materials used to attach the label to the object, or objects being moved (Fig. 1). It could even be caused by corruption of data in the database. In the museum world, this is called dissociation.

Temporary registers

My colleague recently wrote about the history and care of museum labels here in the National Museum of Ireland (NMI). The core of the collection of the National Museum of Ireland –Archaeology came from the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) collection when the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, was established in 1877 (Wallace and Ó Floinn, 2002, p.4-8). Due to the age of some of the object labels, and inevitable wear and tear, some dissociation has occurred. To prevent this loss, curators, documentation officers, and inventory assistants implementing the Spectrum standards for inventory and cataloguing, update old labels with newer archival quality materials, rehouse objects in ways to maintain stronger relationships between objects and labels, and record information from old labels in the NMI’s database.

Occasionally, we find an object without its object label, and we must then investigate to discover its original object number. Sometimes, we have to give the object a temporary number to keep track of the object until the original number is found. The temporary register provides a resource for future museum staff to resolve temporary numbers. In the 1960’s, the Temporary X register was created by Etienne Rynne to record these objects and numbers, as staff worked on objects which were moved to safety during The Emergency (1939-1945) (Fig. 2).

“This register is designed to list numerically objects in the Irish Antiquities Division which have, at present, no known registration number…. it is hoped that it may be possible, at some time in the future, to discover the correct registration numbers…”

Today the X register is retired. During the first phase of the Inventory Project, a new Temporary register was started, in order to distinguish cases identified during the project, and to record these objects with a temporary number using up to date museum standards.

Matchmaking

Recently I was able to reunite one such object. While inventorying some large stone objects I encountered an object numbered 1000:4389, a plaster cast of a decorated frieze (Fig. 3).

As I was examining 1000:4389 and taking dimensions, I noticed the number 2219-1881 written on the object. This provided me with a clue about a possible original object number. I checked the description in the physical Temporary 1000 register to see if there were any notes about the number. My next step was to try track down the register the object was originally registered in. My first clue was the year 1881 - the NMI includes the year as part of the unique object number for each object. So a register from 1881 was my best bet. A second clue was the art style of the object, which seemed to depict a classical Roman art scene.

There were a couple of registers active in 1881. The RIA collected objects into the 1940s, so its register was a possibility, but there was no match in 1881. My next step was to check the Art and Industry register of the Science and Art Museum. When I checked (A&I)1881:2219 (Fig. 4), the description was a match!

"(A&I)1881:2219 Plaster cast of an antique terra cotta from an original in the Royal Bavarian Collection of Antiquities - subject 'Pressing the Grapes.' Page [_] of Illustrated Register."

I was able to reunite the plaster cast with its original object number. Now we have a match made in heaven, with an updated record and label for the object, another temporary number resolved, and smoother access to this wonderful object and collection in the future. Time to celebrate with nice cup of tea!