Galt Museum reviewing items to remove from display

Jul 14, 2021 | 11:46 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge’s Galt Museum is doing its annual review of what needs to stay on display and what needs to go.

The process’ proper term is deaccessioning. That “is the standard practice for museums to carefully consider which objects to remove from their collections and why,” says Collections Technician Kevin MacLean.

“When museums have artifacts within their collections that do not fit their collecting mandate or share the stories of the region they serve, those objects may be considered for deaccession. The deaccessioning process often helps museums refine and focus resources on the collections that are directly relevant to the histories of the communities they serve.”

Some of the items in the museum’s collection need deaccession because they lack sufficient historical context, while other objects better represent the history of other regions and communities.

“For example, a Royal Flying Corps jacket was donated to the Galt in 1997,” says Collections Assistant Kirstan Schamuhn.

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“The donor told the museum staff that it had belonged to their father, Henry Wamsley ‘Pat’ Welch who served in the First World War. After researching Pat Welch extensively, we discovered that Welch moved to Lethbridge between 1936 and 1952 after his military service ended. While the jacket can be a useful object to connect visitors and researchers to Canadian military history, it is not the history of the area covered in the mandate of the Galt,” adds Schamuhn.

The museum has been doing this practice for over 10 years as they find objects in the collection that could be “qualified for deaccession.”

by Connor Gunn