This is the comment thread!

[Osmium Steele]

As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

You are only young once, but you can be immature the rest of your life.
- Osmium Steele

[Gerald]

But sure interesting and stimulating in the long run, then you can see the technology in a different light,

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Vendor

But sure interesting and stimulating in the long run, then you can see the technology in a different light,

How many different machines do you need to take a blurry picture anyway ? That's something I've been asking myself many times recently.

Granted, there have been interesting items as well. Much more interesting. Just trying to dispel some myths on a forum where many people are fond of handling old stuff.

[Gerald]

I can try to imagine it, can be quite monotonous also,

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Vendor

I can try to imagine it, can be quite monotonous also,

Sure is. But that's not the worst. The worst is when you have a crateful of objects that offer no particular challenge at all. "A camera from 1970s, used to take pictures. Imagine that!" Then repeat it over and over again.

Whereas I remember when I once opened a suitcase and when I saw what it had, I heard myself saying: "What the [carebearhappypuppiessandstuff] is this?"

Turns out it was some old crime scene investigation equipment. And even the person who was supposed to know it didn't know what it did. I remember his comment very fondly: "This? This is...some sort of light. Oh, cool, I didn't even know we had something like this, I've never used it." The satisfaction was great when I finally figured it out.

[Gerald]

Thus, one can with hindsight to say that your job ... have many pages and some are a little more about X-file entirely, when you open unknown stuff now and then.

[Hottentot]

Well, research is research, but X-Files could take some lessons from us. When was the last time you heard an actor complain how he/she should have a degree in engineering, biology, chemistry, electronics, history and military just to do his/her job properly? That's how it feels sometimes: I'm just a poor university student, how am I supposed to know what all this stuff does or where it comes from?

So everyone: next time you go into a museum and see something fancy in the vitrine and read all the well thought out and relevant information about it. Please remember that someone somewhere has most like banged his/her head against a wall to bring you that information.

End of rant.

[Gerald]

I encounter quite often things that many have neither seen, heard or knows anything about, and it is like for some, like going to a museum, they would have knowledge of the unknown.

[Herr-Berbunch]

You should do what the rest of us do.

Make things up!

"This, no it's not a camera, it's a primative device for seeing through ladies clothing, in the dark!"

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

"This, no it's not a camera, it's a primative device for seeing through ladies clothing, in the dark!"

Naw, I've already found that, but it didn't work. Out of batteries for at least 30 years.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

You should do what the rest of us do.

Make things up!

"This, no it's not a camera, it's a primative device for seeing through ladies clothing, in the dark!"

Good one,

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

How many different machines do you need to take a blurry picture anyway ? That's something I've been asking myself many times recently.

*grumble, gruble, grumble*
Hey, there are billions of intzeresting things in old cameras: the mechanics, transport mechanism, prisms, lenses, different approaxches to manipulate pictures.....

Barbarian!

Now if you give me 20 bottles of wine however, I would say they all taste like fermented grape juice...

Originally Posted by Hottentot

Well, research is research, but X-Files could take some lessons from us. When was the last time you heard an actor complain how he/she should have a degree in engineering, biology, chemistry, electronics, history and military just to do his/her job properly? That's how it feels sometimes: I'm just a poor university student, how am I supposed to know what all this stuff does or where it comes from?

So everyone: next time you go into a museum and see something fancy in the vitrine and read all the well thought out and relevant information about it. Please remember that someone somewhere has most like banged his/her head against a wall to bring you that information.

End of rant.

Do you try to milk the collective wisdom of experts, like collectors, advisors, history buffs? I seriously think it would be a good idea, to put pictures of things from your collection on the website of your museum and let (selected) experts comment on the stuff or give estimations what those darn things are at all.

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

You should do what the rest of us do.

Make things up!

"This, no it's not a camera, it's a primative device for seeing through ladies clothing, in the dark!"

lol ,
back in 1837, when I was still a teenager, I went to a museum with friends. We saw many devices, just declared as "antique cult devices". We all saw clearly that those were pipes and other stuff to smoke pot. Of course it could also a little related to the fact that we were not sober at our visit...

[Hottentot]

Hey, there are billions of intzeresting things in old cameras: the mechanics, transport mechanism, prisms, lenses, different approaxches to manipulate pictures.....

Yes indeed there are. But unfortunately I have limited amount of time per work day to get to know them so in depth. If it was a camera museum, then it would be different. Now you'd be surprised how much time I have spent in searching for information about different badges. It all depends.

Do you try to milk the collective wisdom of experts, like collectors, advisors, history buffs?

Yes and no. For example, as I said in the case of weird crime investigation machine, there was a person who was supposed to know what it was. He was interviewed when the item was given to the museum and the interview only told that he didn't know what it was.

Whereas if you start asking people, you'll get millions of different stories that don't necessarily have any relevance to anything, nor can they be verified. This applies especially for the "history buffs" whose idea of their own knowledge is often...shall we say, exaggerated. Another problem is that it doesn't necessarily answer enough to know what something is: often we also need to have an idea what this specific object was used for, when, where, by whom and so on. It's very difficult.

But there are exceptions. I for one use a lot of internet when searching for information, it's invaluable. It's a source, just like books, films, interviews etc. You just need to be as critical as with any source.

I seriously think it would be a good idea, to put pictures of things from your collection on the website of your museum and let (selected) experts comment on the stuff or give estimations what those darn things are at all.

I work in a small museum and we have literally thousands of objects in our collections, many of them only vaguely catalogued and not photographed at all. Bigger museums (even in here, I'm not talking about the "world scale big" museums) can have way over hundreds of thousands objects. And that's not counting photographs, archive material and multimedia such as old recordings. I'm sure you can see why putting photos of all of them online would be challenging and probably also technically impossible.

[Penguin]

The camera thing was just a friendly rant, as I work with this stuff at my job - on the other hand it would bore myself to death if I had catalogize vases or umbrellas or silk mustache-trainers

My idea about the collective wisdom, was that if you found an old picture of Tampere, you'd ask the inhabitants of this city, for a saber, some military collectors and if you'd found an antique box with "Silent Hunter" written on it, you'd ask here - however, better not in GT
Given limited resources I had the assumption that it would do less work than conducting research by yourself in hundrets of different fields. I underestimated the dimensions however; how many objects there are which purpose/history is unclear.

[Hottentot]

The camera thing was just a friendly rant

And never taken as anything else, don't worry. It just gave me a great opportunity to point out, that I do love history. Heck, I study it. If it was up to me, I'd spend whole days there just wondering "what does this button do". But with limited time and resources you have to have priorities.

My idea about the collective wisdom, was that if you found an old picture of Tampere, you'd ask the inhabitants of this city, for a saber, some military collectors and if you'd found an antique box with "Silent Hunter" written on it, you'd ask here

Such can be done, as is done in any research. But the problem is, that the perspective of one person is just the perspective of one person. And people are very sensitive about their perspectives. So you'll get a lot of answers that start with "and now for the ultimate truth". Which is usually made not so ultimate, because memories are hazy, knowledge has been gathered from someone who had heard someone to say, and because people mix their own ideas in the knowledge. You'll get lots of interesting and fascinating stories, but end up spending time by filtering the actual information out of them.

Then there is also the problem, that an object to most people is just an object. Let's say I find a black holster made out of leather with certain traits. Someone says: "Yeah, my grandfather had similar." Then you start asking about it and in the end you know the following: it was actually the uncle of his friend, who had a holster like that, and actually the only similarities are, that the uncle's holster was also black and made out of leather.

Though: I have heard that some museums have sort of "item quest books". People can write to those about some object they saw in the museum and how it relates to their life or what they know about it. It's usually along the lines: "my grandmother had a spindle like that". It gives the objects different dimensions, as the experiences of people can differ completely from what was written next to the vitrine. But it's not the same thing.

I underestimated the dimensions however; how many objects there are which purpose/history is unclear.

It's unfortunate that there are many. And it's impossible to really understand before you step into the warehouse for the first time. Trust me on this one, I found out the hard way. I can easily spend a whole day cataloguing one single crate, and there are hundreds of crates like that in there, all neatly in row on the shelves, just waiting to be opened.