Meeting with Historical Society - UPDATED

I've thought about doing the same here on Long Island but haven't got around to it as of yet. Good luck with it and please post the outcome.

I just did a search on the forum for posts relating to "historical society" and found this thread -

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=241813&highlight=historical+society

LIBear said:

I've thought about doing the same here on Long Island but haven't got around to it as of yet. Good luck with it and please post the outcome.

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Thanks LIBear, surely will let you all know the result.

GKL said:

I just did a search on the forum for posts relating to "historical society" and found this thread -

https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=241813&highlight=historical+society

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Thanks GKL, there are a couple good tips in that thread!

Last week I took the kids down to my local Historical society with intentions of becoming members and use it as research on our village history; but when we got there we found that the building had been sold and the society sent everything off to auction. Apparently everything is gone. It's a shame. It was a really neat place. My town has a neat history concerning the first settlement here and how it was destroyed by the Iroquois and the settlers ran off. My house happens to be on the first settled property and was hoping to find where the original house was located. I did find a couple of really deep relics in my lawn that I will be posting in another thread when I can get a couple of pics. Take advantage of your Historical Society. I missed out.

I'd be interested to see how you worded your letter that maybe I might use it as a template. Please and thank you.

24, this sounds like a good adventure.

I had the same idea and have a similar situation.

Keep us posted!

oblivion321 said:

Last week I took the kids down to my local Historical society with intentions of becoming members and use it as research on our village history; but when we got there we found that the building had been sold and the society sent everything off to auction. Apparently everything is gone. It's a shame. It was a really neat place. My town has a neat history concerning the first settlement here and how it was destroyed by the Iroquois and the settlers ran off. My house happens to be on the first settled property and was hoping to find where the original house was located. I did find a couple of really deep relics in my lawn that I will be posting in another thread when I can get a couple of pics. Take advantage of your Historical Society. I missed out.

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That's sad, I just did a search and they still have a web site - http://binghamtonhistorical.org/

The latest entry on their "news" link was Jan 14th.

GKL said:

That's sad, I just did a search and they still have a web site - http://binghamtonhistorical.org/

The latest entry on their "news" link was Jan 14th.

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I actually live in Sidney, which is a small town about 20 minutes east of Binghamton.

http://www.dcnyhistory.org/books/murraysectionIII.html

oblivion321 said:

I actually live in Sidney, which is a small town about 20 minutes east of Binghamton.

http://www.dcnyhistory.org/books/murraysectionIII.html

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Okay, understood, maybe this was the web site for them -

http://www.sidneyonline.com/sha.htm

The latest event I noticed was back in December.

They have a Facebook page also -

https://www.facebook.com/SidneyHistoricalAssociation/

I noticed a Feb 7th comment on their Facebook page that said -

"Just wondering if anyone from the Sidney Historical Society has approached Amphenol about possibly getting some space to reopen in their building? My understanding is there is a lot of vacant space in there since most of their operation is now in the new plant."

and here was the reply from the Sidney historical society -

"Wouldn't want to risk it.. Ditto with the empty buildings in the plaza. Again, rent & heat is an issue. We need a wealthy supporter."

Hope it works out that maybe they can reopen somewhere later on.

Wish you well , this could work out very well for you , hope you get back soon
HH

Ha, I see I chimed in on the link that GKL posted. And to repeat something I said there: Volunteer FIRST. Like to be a docent, attend meetings like a fly-on-the-wall, etc... BEFORE you go mentioning md'ing.

Because you have to be careful. Some of the historical societies and museums across the USA are chaired and led by archies. And some of them might be purist archies who will bristle at your intentions (despite what one letter opener might have initially said).

So you might want to just attend, volunteer to docent, pay your dues, get to know a few people, volunteer some docent time, etc.... at first. In order to "feel out" the situation. And then start dropping your true intentions. Lest you be seen as someone who just wishes to capitalize off other people's works, having them "jump through hoops" for you, without lifting a finger to actually be a part of the nuts-&-bolts.

I say this as a worker in 2 different museums. Yes it pays off in sites to hunt, and back door archives to study. But no, I didn't walk right in saying "where can I hunt?"

See what Oblivion posted above about a historical society going "belly-up" and sending everything to auction!!
This is why you should LEND, never donate.
Otherwise you might never see your items again.
Not only that, but if the society decides to, they can take your things off of display and store them never to be seen again, aka, in another members "basement".
Just saying, be careful

matmit said:

.... This is why you should LEND, never donate....

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Matmit, I know this will sound horrible, but there are many museums who increasingly refuse to accept things "on loan", like you recommend. And while I know that sounds ungrateful of them , and against the md'rs best interests. Because after all, you might want it back some day. Especially if the item is not being displayed, where it can be appreciated by those type viewers who love dug artifacts. Right ?

BUT PUT YOURSELF IN THE MUSEUM'S SHOES : There's been horror stories of persons waltzing into museums "demanding their stuff back". And for example, asking that cabinet displays be opened to "get back" something their sister wasn't supposed to donate, blah blah.

And I know you speak disparagingly of museums that store stuff in vaults and basements "never to be seen again", but .... dude, do you realize how much stuff gets donated to museums by well-meaning sincere people ?? And the poor museums get chastised as "un-appreciative" or "snobby" and to "have insulted" people by not graciously accepting any and all donations.

So it's SIMPLY IMPOSSIBLE for everything to be displayed. And museum staff and time (when's the last time you donated time to the effort?) simply can't be perpetually rotating stuff in and out of displays all the time. The volunteer manpower simply isn't un-ending and eternal. And a lot of thought goes into the displays as they are, so they're not likely to be re-arranging it every time a new item comes in . Unless, of course, it's beyond a doubt the holy grail of priceless history or something .

And museums are increasingly declining to have the stipulation "must be displayed". Because otherwise, think of it: Then essentially what you have is: Joe Blow General Public dictating what can and can't be displayed, forever on out. You can certainly try, but you will find an increasing amount of museums that will you sign that your item is given to the museum, with no strings attached.

There was even horror stories of museum's who had been given something decades earlier, with that "on-loan" stipulation. Then, decades later, someone comes in demanding it, and everyone has to "drop everything they're doing" to look for Joe Blow's item. And heaven help them if they can't find it, because then someone's hinting at "getting legal" on them, blah blah.

Thanks Tom!
I hope I did not come off ungrateful for anybody involved with museums, I just know of someone who got burned and wanted the OP to consider these points.
I think museums could raise a great deal of money by auctioning off items which have not been on display for decades, or duplicates.

Meeting with Historical Society - UPDATE

Thanks everyone for their advice. The meeting was a little rocky at the beginning. There were more people there than I anticipated (16 in all) so I got pretty nervous before it was my time to speak. I tried to only detail why I am so interested in the city, as Tom suggested, but they inquired why I sent my letter and about the metal detecting.

I mentioned how I got started, described the first few finds that hooked me, and mentioned a possible partnership. The President described how that would not be possible due to liability, which I surely understand. He then asked if I would be interested in doing a 1 hour presentation that they would promote as a guest speaker. I do not think I have enough material for a whole hour is what I told them! They all kind of laughed and figured this might be the case. I said I would welcome being a part of a larger presentation about artifacts or relics.

I did stay to listen to the rest of the meeting and when they brought up the need to get younger members involved in the meetings, I did voice my opinions. I suggested an Instagram account that I have volunteered to help with.

But anyways, back to the detecting, and this is where it gets good....after the meeting concluded, I spoke with the woman who is in charge of the quarterly newsletter. She said they would be very happy if I could write an article about the items I have found within the city, including pictures, and they would put this into their June edition. In addition to this, they said that it would be perfectly acceptable for me to add some content to inquire if any of the readers are interested in me searching their property! If so, they would need to contact me directly, not the historical society. But this is great news!! There are a little over 200 members of the society, all of which would get this newsletter. Even if I get interest from 2% of the members, I'd be looking at 4-5 new permissions. I am very excited about this and eager to get work on my article.

I will need to make sure that I have worded well so that all will know this is a personal endeavor, no monetary aspirations and that their yards would not be ruined by having me come.

Thanks again for the tips and I hope that I made you all proud, LOL!

Acuva24 said:

Thanks everyone for their advice. The meeting was a little rocky at the beginning. There were more people there than I anticipated (16 in all) so I got pretty nervous before it was my time to speak. I tried to only detail why I am so interested in the city, as Tom suggested, but they inquired why I sent my letter and about the metal detecting.

I mentioned how I got started, described the first few finds that hooked me, and mentioned a possible partnership. The President described how that would not be possible due to liability, which I surely understand. He then asked if I would be interested in doing a 1 hour presentation that they would promote as a guest speaker. I do not think I have enough material for a whole hour is what I told them! They all kind of laughed and figured this might be the case. I said I would welcome being a part of a larger presentation about artifacts or relics.

I did stay to listen to the rest of the meeting and when they brought up the need to get younger members involved in the meetings, I did voice my opinions. I suggested an Instagram account that I have volunteered to help with.

But anyways, back to the detecting, and this is where it gets good....after the meeting concluded, I spoke with the woman who is in charge of the quarterly newsletter. She said they would be very happy if I could write an article about the items I have found within the city, including pictures, and they would put this into their June edition. In addition to this, they said that it would be perfectly acceptable for me to add some content to inquire if any of the readers are interested in me searching their property! If so, they would need to contact me directly, not the historical society. But this is great news!! There are a little over 200 members of the society, all of which would get this newsletter. Even if I get interest from 2% of the members, I'd be looking at 4-5 new permissions. I am very excited about this and eager to get work on my article.

I will need to make sure that I have worded well so that all will know this is a personal endeavor, no monetary aspirations and that their yards would not be ruined by having me come.

Thanks again for the tips and I hope that I made you all proud, LOL!

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That is fantastic, congratulations !!!!

Since they say have them contact you directly that likely assures the society of not having any liability, but still gives you access to getting potential permissions from their newsletter subscribers. Being in their newsletter should add to your credibility and trustworthiness than if you merely had an ad in a regular newspaper.

Share on the forum how you plan to word it and members can help you fine tune it (if needed).

sounds like none of them there are "purist archie" mindsets. Let's hope that remains the case. But just be aware, that many many museums have leaders or board members who have archaeological backgrounds and mindsets.

So I have seen "bad blood" flowing at the mere mention of the word "metal detector" around museums and historical societies. NOT that wouldn't exploit and harvest their resources (a fox guarding the hen-house), but would be very careful in how you do it.

Become a member, be a fly on the wall, volunteer desk time, get to know who's who (and you might catch them in comments regarding "looting" and other such buzz words).

Congrats! Sounds like you may have gain access to some great sites. Keep us posted!

Acuva24 said:

I sent to a letter to my local historical society last month in hopes of a possible partnership between them and myself.

I want to make the best of this potentially huge opportunity.

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You gotta be kinding,,,, stay away from any Hysterical Association,, nothing but trouble, no matter how pure your intentions,,, the nature of the association is to wield power.
Conservation, historical and other do gooder associations have only one objective,,, to make you kneel at their alter.

Go make your own connections and let go any properties under their auspices.

Sorry I removed the sugar coating, and I don't want to incite anyone, just saying what I have experienced here in SE Mass., with these organizations.