A washboard, a laundry boiler, two beetle-damaged blackbirds and a collection animal bones all lost their official museum status Wednesday, when the Museum of Riverside Board voted to strike them from its permanent collection.
The decision followed a staff review that found many items were never meant for permanent-collection status in the first place.
According to a staff report, the collection of tools and home appliances from the Victorian era included one washing machine, one clothes wringer, one washboard, one laundry boiler, one laundry agitator, 24 clothespins and one pie safe. The collection was exhibited in the Heritage House kitchen or on the back porch during open hours.
"These items have been in use at Heritage House, and this is an appropriate decision to be made because they are handled quite a bit and they're used in docent historical [tours]," said board member Cynthia Zdilor.
Most of the laundry appliances were acquired by the Riverside Museum Associates and donated to the museum with the intent of being displayed at Heritage House, according to the staff report, with the washboard donated by Dorothy Knopf and the laundry agitator donated by former museum staff member Carlos Fowler.
However, there was no indication that the items were intended to be a part of the museum's permanent collection. City staff said recently-available records indicate the objects were "always intended to be hands-on, education-related, and demonstration objects, not subject to the preservation demands of the permanent collection."
"These objects have been used for more than 15 years in accordance with what is now clear to have been donor intent," the staff report stated. "While they are historic artifacts, they lack strong Riverside-based provenance that would justify permanent collection status."
The items will remain in Heritage House "contributing to the historic atmosphere," and will be transferred in the records to the prop collection, where they can continue their use by docents until they are too dilapidated or unsafe to continue to be useful, according to the staff report.
The board also approved without discussion removing a collection of two Brewer's blackbirds purchased for the museum in 1970, one Costa's hummingbird and a collection of small animal bones donated by Mrs. A. W. Stitt — possibly in connection with Brownie Scout Troop No. 59.
The bird specimens have suffered irreversible damage and, per federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act regulations, must be incinerated; staff noted the birds are already well-represented in the permanent collection, so their removal won't affect its scientific value. The collection of animal bones, which lacks corresponding data, was determined to have little scientific value and will be transferred to the museum's prop collection.
