Hi Chad,

At the MFA in Boston we make regular object records for frames, shipping crates, and other object accessories such as mounts, mannequins, pedestals, and so on. We assign the object status: “MFA owned” to these non-accessioned objects.

We link these records to the objects they are associated with. Some paintings have links to more than one frame (original frame, shipping frame, and so on). Some frames are linked to more than one painting. This system has made life a lot easier for our framer.

Object records give us a place to document the conservation of frames, and other accessories, and the many fields are useful for describing the accessories, their makers, dimensions, their age, etc., that would not be possible if we used the component area of TMS.

Some details:

• We number our frame records with FR.### (next highest available number); they are assigned to a department called “Accessories.” We have about 4,000 frame records.

• The shipping crate project is managed by the Registrar’s office together with Collections Management staff. Crates are numbered CR.### (next highest available number); they are assigned to a department called “Registrar.” We have about 1,400 shipping crate and container records. This is a new project and we hope it will help us locate and recycle shipping crates more efficiently. Our crates are stored in about six different facilities.

• All other accessories are numbered ANC.###  (next highest available number). These are assigned to either a curatorial department (when the accessory is directly related to an accessioned object such as the box that a piece of jewelry came in), or to the department called “Accessories.” We have about 3,050 ANC records.

• We use the components area of TMS for parts of accessioned objects. Often various parts of objects need to be stored under different conditions. We make component records for all the parts and assign specific locations to the different parts.

• For works of art here on loan we only make a separate frame or accessory record if the art will be separated from the frame or accessory. To help us keep track, we use the following status flags: Lender Frame, Lender Accessory, No Lender Accessory (this includes frames).

Best wishes,

Linda Pulliam

Head of Collections Management

-----Original Message-----
From: The Museum System (TMS) Users [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chad Petrovay
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 4:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Hardware in TMS

Could anyone share how their museum deals with hardware associated with objects?

By hardware, I mean: Mounts, frames, book cradles, crates, other storage/display devices.

We are looking for a way to track all of these within TMS.

Chad M Petrovay

Collections Database Administrator

P: 410.547.9000 x266