Our use of this field has changed over time, based on the fact that our Notes field is Public on eMuseum, but Curatorial Remarks is not.

Actually I’ve been working on my manual today, and have the old and new right in front of me. Here is how we originally used it:

Curatorial Remarks: This field is for specific remarks by Department Curators ONLY. Information about condition or reattribution has specific fields set aside, but other Curatorial comments belong here.

1. Use Curatorial Remarks to justify or explain curatorial information and/or judgment calls as necessary, and include published sources that were referenced when possible. For example:

a. The date of case bottles 1894.20.0.2-.5 do not correspond to the family history. These case bottles could not have been brought to America in the ship 'Diligent', which sailed in 1638, because they were not made before 1780. (Hunt 5/3/2005)

b. Information on the maker and date based on Patricia Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, p. 686-692. (Hunt 8/8/2006)

2. If an expert consultant reviews an object, use Curatorial Remarks to identify the consultant, what details they reviewed, the conclusions, and the date of the visit.

3. If a curator’s specialized knowledge enables him/her to add detail to the record that is too specific to fit in Description, add it here. For example:

a. The word "galoshes" derived from "Galoe shoes", which are related to clogs like these. (Bassett 5/3/2001)

b. Opal and opaque white glass objects were often made to imitate the fine, translucent porcelains being made in China for export to Europe and America. (Hunt 3/10/2005)

4. For authority control, curators MUST close notes with: (Last name DD/MM/YEAR).

We made a change to add more informative comments to the regular Notes field, like the one above about galoshes.  We thought things like that would be of interest to people.

We do also use this field now to leave in-house notes. If something has a Status Flag of Photography Needed, the cataloger may  specify a Photography Note: Please take a detail of the label attached on verso of quilt. (Smith 6/24/2013)

Here is the slight change to the manual (please forgive any formatting, it is a work in progress…)

1.      Curatorial Remarks: This field is for notes about objects that are not going to be available to the public. It can be used specifically for Curators, but also can be used for instructions on a specific photography shot that is needed, or to record that a photograph is available in the object file.

1.      Use Curatorial Remarks to justify or explain curatorial information and/or judgment calls as necessary, and include published sources that were referenced when possible. For example:

b.      The date of case bottles 1894.20.0.2-.5 do not correspond to the family history. These case bottles could not have been brought to America in the ship 'Diligent', which sailed in 1638, because they were not made before 1780. (Hunt 5/3/2005)

Information on the maker and date based on Patricia Kane, Colonial Massachusetts Silversmiths and Jewelers, p. 686-692. (Hunt 8/8/2006)

1.      If an expert consultant reviews an object, use Curatorial Remarks to identify the consultant, what details they reviewed, the conclusions, and the date of the visit.

2.      If a curator’s specialized knowledge enables him/her to add theory or speculation to a record, without being able to do research at the moment, add it here. For example:

2.      Probably produced for a Roman Catholic audience. (Finlay 4/10/2002)

1.      Maker Note: Probably the work of an amateur photographer, possibly George Grant McCurdy. (Finlay 3/27/2002)

For authority control, catalogers/curators MUST close notes with: (Last name DD/MM/YEAR).

Diane.

Marisa,

Thank you for asking this question! We have some unintended cross-over between these two fields as well, so I’m interested to hear how others use them. Generally speaking, we use the Curatorial Remarks field to indicate the source of our data, since not all of our records are NPG objects that were catalogued by curatorial departments; we do also enter in Curatorial Remarks “notes” about the object that are for in-house use only. The Notes field we tend use for the kind of information that might go online or on an object label; however, we do not currently use the Notes field on our website.

Hi TMS Listserv,

We are reevaluating some of our standards for the text entry fields in TMS, and two that are being particularly tricky are the ‘Curatorial Remarks’ and the ‘Notes’ fields. In our basic practices manual, ‘Curatorial Remarks’ is described as being for general comments concerning the object, but is also not restricted just to curators. Departments that currently have access to the ‘Curatorial Remarks’ field include Registrar, Collections Management, and Conservation. The ‘Notes’ field was not originally intended to be for permanent information, but for notes on entry fields that needed to be corrected or additional information that needed to be added to the TMS record or physical file, and removed with those tasks were completed.

In reality, the standards set up above are not followed. The problem is that these two fields have become interchangeable in terms of use, with curators putting their comments in the ‘Notes’ field and information that is not intended to be permanent put into ‘Curatorial Remarks’.

I would like to know what criteria other museums use to differentiate between these two text entry fields in TMS. Input from museums using any version of TMS are appreciated!

Thank you!

Marisa Szpytman

Registrar Intern

Detroit Institute of Arts

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