falter
Veteran Member
Just branching off as something interesting came up in my previous thread - I was seeing sentiments to the effect that museums wouldn't really be the ideal place for something like my Mark-8 to be resident at - since it likely would be stored out of sight and mind.
So just another opinion question for talking sake, but also for estate planning purposes -- and I know some folks here work in/with museums -- are museums a good or bad place for your eventually former vintage computers?
I've thought about this on and off. As I see it, the (perceived) pros of sending stuff to a museum are:
- Security: it'll have a stable, well funded home and not be lost to recycling or such.
- Accessibility: more people will see it
- Research: it'll be available for research purposes
Cons:
- Accessibility: Especially if it ends up in the museum's storage, not seen in public ever again.
- Interactivity: Most museums I've been to do not allow you to directly interact with artifacts, preferring static, hands off displays
- Security: as we saw with Living Computer Museum, even backing by a late tech billionaire is no guarantee of stability/survival
Not to say all museums are created equal; I have seen some small, privately owned museums that feature 'living' displays and allow interaction (LCM seems to have been the exception among larger museums). But private museums are private, and I have issues with the notion that contributing to one is just helping someone fatten their own collection of toys.
I will say the research end of things definitely makes me favorable to big public/non profit museums like CHM. Getting measurements for my TVT replica was amazing. However, on the down side, CHM and other museums often have things bolted down, and don't show you the interesting bits. We can only see the outside of Don's TVT for example - the boards, the actual machine itself, is more or less permanently obscured from view, and it likely will never be seen to operate again, like many things on static display.
And yeah, I've seen photos of museum storehouses.. stacks and stacks of rarish machines like the Sol-20, Altair, etc.. machines that likely will just sit there instead of being restored and loved and used by private owners.
What do you guys think?
So just another opinion question for talking sake, but also for estate planning purposes -- and I know some folks here work in/with museums -- are museums a good or bad place for your eventually former vintage computers?
I've thought about this on and off. As I see it, the (perceived) pros of sending stuff to a museum are:
- Security: it'll have a stable, well funded home and not be lost to recycling or such.
- Accessibility: more people will see it
- Research: it'll be available for research purposes
Cons:
- Accessibility: Especially if it ends up in the museum's storage, not seen in public ever again.
- Interactivity: Most museums I've been to do not allow you to directly interact with artifacts, preferring static, hands off displays
- Security: as we saw with Living Computer Museum, even backing by a late tech billionaire is no guarantee of stability/survival
Not to say all museums are created equal; I have seen some small, privately owned museums that feature 'living' displays and allow interaction (LCM seems to have been the exception among larger museums). But private museums are private, and I have issues with the notion that contributing to one is just helping someone fatten their own collection of toys.
I will say the research end of things definitely makes me favorable to big public/non profit museums like CHM. Getting measurements for my TVT replica was amazing. However, on the down side, CHM and other museums often have things bolted down, and don't show you the interesting bits. We can only see the outside of Don's TVT for example - the boards, the actual machine itself, is more or less permanently obscured from view, and it likely will never be seen to operate again, like many things on static display.
And yeah, I've seen photos of museum storehouses.. stacks and stacks of rarish machines like the Sol-20, Altair, etc.. machines that likely will just sit there instead of being restored and loved and used by private owners.
What do you guys think?
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