Category: museums

challenge history museums pragmatic historian

Pursuing Members from a Niche History Market

By Mary | by Mary

Leading a local historical society, as I do, creating long-term financial stability for the organization is always on my mind. At this time of year, so is membership, particularly figuring out how to increase the number of members. Members, especially those who remain members over a long period of time, are not only the lifeblood of historical societies, they add immeasurably to the organization in terms of moral, financial, and other forms of support. Colleen…

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museums pragmatic historian

Libraries Versus Museums, Round 2

By Mary | by Mary

Welcome to Round 2 in the cage match between libraries and museums. In March 2019 in a post called “Libraries Versus Museums,” I discussed an article from CityLab about how public and private data should be handled by the highly trusted public libraries because there was no other model out there for handling such data … except that there is. History museums regularly handle public and private data. That, apparently, was Round 1 in the…

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history museums pragmatic historian

Advice on Hiring Museum Contractors

By Mary | by Mary

This might post might feel a bit off-topic for The Pragmatic Historian, but I know several of my colleagues in the Minnesota history museum field are in my audience and I need to pass along some advice. (Appropriately enough, today is Labor Day and the topic relates to the day.) The Legacy Amendment & Grants Some background for those not in Minnesota: In 2008 voters passed the Legacy Amendment, which provides sales tax funding for…

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