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Archiver > APG > 2007-07 > 1183768500


From: "Melinde Sanborn" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Why do genealogists disenfranchise themselves? (long)
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 20:35:00 -0400
In-Reply-To: <2dd401740707061544h62d67102ufdd66311dfcafd27@mail.gmail.com>


For those who have donated to the NYG&B collections in the past, did they
sign an agreement describing how the item would be handled, displayed,
etc.?

Organizations like Harvard are hamstrung with huge sums of money that can't
be spent because they accepted donations with strings. I believe there is a
fund exclusively for the purchase of books about Michelangelo that could buy
a small country because publishing does not keep up with the mere interest
on the fund. Anyone want to do a genealogy of Michelangelo?

In recent decades, most organizations stopped taking donations with strings.
For the older things, there is usually a dissolution clause in the bylaws.
There are some noteworthy exceptions. In one case, valuable furniture came
to a genealogical society with a sizeable gift about one hundred years ago.
The gift must be repaid with interest to the legal heirs if any of the
furniture fails to be displayed. The gift was big in c1911, it would be
staggering to repay now . . . as the heirs know. Likely this was dealt with
years ago, but there are other similar situations out there that
institutional memories would do well to track.

Melinde


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