Artifact and Archival Donations

Donate to the Collection

Items are acquired to the Main collection, Teaching collection and Archival collection through donation, bequest, and selective purchase. As the Hoffmann collection is a closed collection, items will not be accepted except in the rare circumstance where the item was owned by the family and its loss would be a detriment to the collection. The Museum is only able to acquire items that it can properly document, preserve, store, maintain, and provide public access to.

The Curator has the authority to determine what items are obtained for the collection. No item will be accepted into the collection without the Curators approval. In rare circumstances, the Curator shall bring the decision to the Board of Directors who can make the final decision.

In the case of "orphaned" items (objects left with no information) they will only be considered as props or disposal.

The Museum retains the right to reject any object offered as a gift to the museum.

Acceptable Items

Items to be accessioned should have significant local context including:

· items which can be demonstrated to have been used and/or created in the geographical area known as Pitt Meadows.

· items collected, purchased, or created by long-term residents of Pitt Meadows which provide insight into their everyday lives, and economic activities of the area’s past.

· items from or relating to any Indigenous group including Katzie First Nation, with the understanding that these items are held in trust for them. Any item held in trust requires the permission of that Indigenous group to collect.

· other items that do not meet the first three points but are valuable for inclusion in the Museum’s “Hands On” Teaching collection and are collected with the donor’s understanding that they may not be retained for an extended period.

Unacceptable Items

Items that the museum will not normally accept or accession into their collections:

· those items that are too damaged where conservation costs would exceed the museological value of the item.

· items with no local context or where there is no documentary or other proof of local context. These items may be considered for the Teaching collection.

· duplicates of common items of which there is already adequate representation in the collection or archives.

· items which have been collected, sold or otherwise transferred in contravention of any provincial, national, or international wildlife protection, or natural history conservation law or treaty.

· items which have been collected, sold, or otherwise transferred in contravention of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (or any similar statutes) as ratified by Canada on June 20th, 1978.

· artifacts recovered from deliberate unscientific destruction or damage of known archaeological or other sites, or from any illegal or clandestine evacuations. This does not include accidental finds by private property owners.

· illegally or unethically collected natural history specimens.

· any item which has a questionable or unethical history of ownership.