Duesenberg, and other rare classic cars. This museum is housed in the original international

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1 Brenneman 1 Kelley Brenneman 652-Digital Libraries Prof Lamb 11 April 2016 Spark 5-Option 2: Specialization A week ago I started a yearlong archival fellowship at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg (ACD) Museum in Auburn, Indiana. The museum displays four types of cars: the Auburn, the Cord, the Duesenberg, and other rare classic cars. This museum is housed in the original international headquarters of the company and the factory were the cars were built. As I started working here I quickly realized the working in a special or university library and archives was way different that working in a museum archive. For starters half of the archive collection is out on display for the public rather than behind locked doors in a humidity controlled environment. Another thing is preserving big, bulking objects like cars takes a completely different approach, and The care need most definitely hinges on whether the car is in its original form or whether it s been restored and sent to us. 1 Now the ACD Museum is a small museum with a lot of dreams as to how they would like to preserve their cars and materials in the archives but not necessarily the budget to make it happen. However there are other, larger car museums in the country that have the budgets to preserve the cars and archives in the proper way. Ever since human beings started saving their history in museums there have been challenges as to how to go about doing that. When it comes to objects in the museum this can lead to problems. Out of practical preservation concerns, archivists find themselves unable to retain artifacts in the archives and sometimes transfer them to different organizational departments or institutions. 2 With things that as big as cars the cars housed in the ACD Museum the challenges continue to grow. It is very hard to find display cases big enough to house each car, and often it is too expensive to buy a case for every single 1 Bowers, March Rudolph, 25.

2 Brenneman 2 car. The Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky is one that has some cars in display cases. However the Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana is one that just has the cars roped off so that visitors cannot get to close. The ACD Museum is another that just has the cars roped off, however they are a ground level, so they are not much a deterrent to people. When it comes to classic cars like ours, the ongoing debate is whether you preserve them in the condition that they are in or do you restore them to how they would have looked the day they rolled

3 Brenneman 3 off the line? 3 Ever since I was asked this question I have been stewing over it and trying to decide where I fall in the debate. One the one hand preserving the car in the condition it is in, even if it is not the pretty form, will give hints as to the materials used, how the car was originially supposed to look, and it tells the story of the car. However fully restored cars look much more flashy and exciting in a museum and restoring the car could just be seen has adding another chapter to that car s story. These cars [unrestored ones] are shown with a patina that tells a story of decades or service, their faded finishes, worse seats, stone chips and rust specks verifying their biographies. Valued for their originality and historical significance they present the wizened, character-laden faces of survivors. 4 In some cases restoration makes the most sense. For example the Corvette Museum made international headlines on February 12, 2014 when a sinkhole collapsed in the Skydome of the Museum in the wee hours of the morning. 5 Eight cars fell into the sinkhole and were all subjected to varying degrees of damage, and on the Corvette Cave In Exhibit says this about restoring the cars that were damaged in this natural disaster: Some tears were shed, is how Museum Executive Director Wendell Strode described the news of eight Corvettes falling victim to the sinkhole. This panel provides photos, videos and facts on each of the cars, as well as an interactive before model of each Corvette. An illuminated acrylic case illustrates precisely where each car fell into the hole The recovery of the Corvettes from the sinkhole was no easy task! While you can see short video clips and photos of the process within the Cars Affected section, you can get behind the controls of a crane at our interactive game within The Recovery. Guests of all ages will enjoy digitally recovering all eight cars and putting them safely in their garage bays. Your educational journey through Corvette Cave In will lead you to our Skydome Where all eight of the sinkhole Corvettes remain on display. See the two Corvettes restored by General Motors, as well as the other six cars that look just as they did after being rescued from the sinkhole. We have one car left to repair the 1962 Black Convertible which will undergo repair in our new Maintenance and Preservation Department. 6 3 Bowers, March Heiler. 5 Corvette Cave In Exhibit 6 Corvette Cave In Exhibit

4 Brenneman 4 In cases such as what happened at the Corvette restoration makes sense since the cars damaged due to an unforeseen advent. However when it comes to the cars at the Studebaker Museum or the ACD Museum restoration is still up for debate. One step towards preservation that some museums are moving towards is digitizing collections in the museums. However this can be a challenge according to the article Connecting to Collections in Florida: Current Conditions and Critical Needs in Libraries, Archives, and Museums. This article makes the following claim: While the nation s libraries, archives, and museums face an overwhelming need for basic preservation and conservation, the lack of cataloging and accessibility of collections poses yet another serious challenge to the nation s collecting agencies. Nearly 25 percent of the respondents reported that their institutions had 25 percent or less of their collections cataloged, while only 12 percent reported having all their collections available through catalogs or other finding aids. Without accurate data on collections content, it is even more difficult to make decisions such as prioritizing the limited resources available for maintaining and preserving artifacts. 7 Despite all of these challenges facing libraries and museums that has not stopped some places from starting massive digitization projects. Some places are even digitizing the cars! For example The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan is a place that has been digitizing cars. This is a fairly simple digitization were it is just a high quality photo that has been upload to the website, but it is still a start. 7 Jörgensen, Marty, and Braun, 456.

5 Brenneman 5 Besides digitizing cars, The Henry Ford Museum has also digitized other collections within their archives and have put them online for public use. One collection that has been digitized is a collection of materials that belonged to Henry Ford himself. Some of these items include his employee badge, a wedding invitation of Ford to Clara Bryant, and his driver s license. Some museums are digitizing collections but if you looked on their website you would not even be aware of it. For example the ACD Archive page looks like this:

6 Brenneman 6 However the museum is in the process of digitizing many of its collections in the archives, focusing mostly on the photos since many have been damaged because they were stored with their negative with was made of nitrate. The archivist would eventually like to make the collections accessible online, but he also believes that the website needs a major overall before that happens. ACD has been using the program Past Perfect to digitize collections, and this program does have a web-based component that would allow the collections to be displayed online, but again the webpage does need some work before that happens. Despite the debate about preservation verse restoration that was mentioned earlier, there are still many people who want to restore their classic cars but they want to do it in a way that holds true to the original form and design of the car. Because of this many museums are digitizing blueprints, sale manuals, paint guides, etc. for public use. Having these online or in a digital format to sell to the public will allow people who are restoring the cars to be as close to the original as possible. Digitization is here to stay and many museums are starting to see the benefits of having collections available online. Digitizing will also play an important role in the preservation of many museum collections, not just ones they have in their archives. In the case of car museums like the ones

7 Brenneman 7 mentioned above persevering these feats of engineering is no small task. To practice engineering in the field of historic preservation or to call oneself a conservation engineer takes an enormous effort in researching, analyzing, re-analyzing, and understanding archaic structural systems and building technology, if one is to keep historic buildings in service. 8 This also applies to cars and other objects within a museum that require special care. However, as museums move into the future their number one goal will continue to be the same, and that is to preserve and display pieces of history that tell the story of humanity. 8 Trelstad and Silman,

8 Brenneman 8 Reference List Archival Collection. The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum Archives and Education. The Studebaker National Museum. Bowers, E. Informal Question and Answer Session. March 30, Capell, L.. (2010). Digitization as a Preservation Method for Damaged Acetate Negatives: A Case Study. The American Archivist, 73(1), Retrieved from Classic Car Collector Tips for Proper Preservation and Restoration. Autos.com. Retrieved from Digital Collections. The Henry Ford Museum. Heiler, Fred. (2012). Preserving Classics, Wrinkles and All. New York Times. Retrieved from Jörgensen, C., Marty, P. F., & Braun, K.. (2012). Connecting to Collections in Florida: Current Conditions and Critical Needs in Libraries, Archives, and Museums. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 82(4), Kinney, David. (2009). Preservation Class Cars. Hagerty. Retrieved from Rudolph, K. (2011). Separated at Appraisal: Maintaining the Archival Bond between Archives Collections and Museum Objects. Archival Issues, 33(1), Retrieved from Special Exhibits: Corvette Cave-In: The Skydome Sinkhole Experience. National Corvette Museum. Trelstad, D., & Silman, R.. (2009). Preservation Engineering: Past, Present, and Future. APT Bulletin, 40(3/4), Retrieved from Wexler, A.. (2007). Museum Culture and the Inequities of Display and Representation. Visual Arts Research, 33(1), Retrieved from Woodcock, D. G. (2009). Academic Preparation for Preservation Practice. APT Bulletin, 40(3/4), Retrieved from