Date of Award
2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design
Department
Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design
First Advisor
Karl Aspelund
Abstract
Many universities with historic textile and costume collections are not able to follow museum standard accessioning practices or policies because the unique nature of university teaching collections often necessitates the creation of custom practices. As a result, collections managers must create custom accessioning practices that address the specific challenges that their collections face.
This study meticulously surveyed university historic textile and costume collections in the United States to determine their accessioning practices and policies and how the challenges they faced influenced these practices. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to create a list of interview questions that accurately evaluated accession policies and practices, while also acknowledging the most common challenges that university teaching collections faced. Several staff members from university teaching collections in the United States, who were involved in the accessioning process at their universities, were then contacted to participate in Zoom interviews about their accessioning practices. With the information from these interviews, I developed recommendations and suggestions for creating useful accessioning practices and policies for university textile and costume collections.
The research was conducted in multiple steps. Once all the data was acquired, the interviews were transcribed into Word documents, the interview transcripts were coded to find common themes, and I identified the essential and beneficial information about my research. The recommendations and suggestions were then derived from those results.
Results demonstrated a wide variety of accessioning practices and policies utilized by university collections. Elements from accessioning policies recommended by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries were observed in all accessioning policies, showing that though these museum standards may not fully apply to university collections, parts can still be applicable. Some accessioning policies were better developed, matching more of the AAM and AAMG recommendations, while others were more basic and heavily relied on the discretion of the staff. This diversity provides a comprehensive view of the field.
Recommended Citation
Gutierrez, Arianna, "ACCESSIONING PRACTICES OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING COLLECTIONS" (2024). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 2537.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/2537
Appendix A- IRB Agreement to Participate for Exempt Studies 2024