Preserving History: How to donate artifacts to Minidoka National Historic Site

“My family used this item at Minidoka, and it’s just been sitting in my garage. How can I donate it to the site?”

Both Friends of Minidoka and our partners at the National Park Service hear versions of this question from time to time. The best place to start is by sending an email to NPS staff, including photos and as much detail as possible on the item’s history.

Artifacts and archives are kept in a storage facility at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. There is a wide variety of Minidoka-related materials currently in storage, but NPS is currently most interested in acquiring items that represent the military service of men who left Minidoka to serve during WWII.

See the following FAQs or email soid_museum_collections@nps.gov.

FAQs about donating to South Idaho National Parks Museum

“I would like to donate something to the park museum. What should I do?”

If you have an item that you would like to donate to the [park] museum, contact museum staff at soid_museum_collections@nps.gov. If possible, send photos and as much information on the item’s history as available. If the item is found to fit within the Scope of Collections, it will be reviewed by the Collections Advisory Committee for potential inclusion into the museum collections.

“What is the Scope of Collections? What is a Collections Advisory Committee?”

The Scope of Collections is the guiding document and ruleset for museum collecting practices. Each museum has different standards that detail what items should and should not be managed under the museum program. Items within the Scope of Collections are brought before the Collections Advisory Committee for final review.

The Collections Advisory Committee is a team of subject matter experts that make the final determination on potential donations. If the item is found to be sufficiently within scope, it is accessioned into the collections. If the item is found to be outside of scope, it is turned down as a potential donation.

“Can I drop off items that I do not want, but think the museum may be interested in keeping?”

Do not leave items at the park as potential donations. By doing so, we cannot ensure that the proper protocol for legal transference of property is established, making the items ineligible for entry into the museum collections. If an item is left behind in this way, it will be rejected as abandoned property and ultimately disposed of if the owner cannot be contacted. All potential donations should be reviewed by the museum curator before the exchange of any property.

“When will my donation go on exhibit?”

Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that every item goes on exhibit. What you see in exhibits is often a very small fraction of what the museum program is managing in the collections. For this reason, the museum cannot accept items with attached conditions, such as guarantees to display the item. The items kept in collections are preserved as resources for education and research.

“I have a question that is not answered on this page. Who can I contact for more information?”

If you have additional questions, send them to soid_museum_collections@nps.gov and museum staff will assist you.