Donations
Additions from the community continually enhance our collection. If you are interested in sharing a piece of your Waterloo history, contact museum@waterloo.ca or call 519-885-8828.
The City of Waterloo Museum actively collects and solicits new artifacts on a year round basis. The City of Waterloo Museum, however, will not accept a donation if conditions are attached to the offer.
The manager/curator reviews donations and determines the artifacts’ suitability relative to the mandate of the City of Waterloo Museum. The manager/curator also reviews the condition of the item and examines the existing collection to see if there are examples of similar items, which already have been collected. If the item meets the Museum's criteria, the item is accepted into the collection.
All objects proposed for acquisition will be assessed based on the following criteria:
- Condition: We will consider the physical condition of artifacts and the amount of conservations or restoration needed. Objects in poor condition will not be accepted unless they are rare or of particular significance to our collections.
- Relevance: We will assess artifacts based on how well they ‘fit’ with the museum’s collections. This concerns how well they support the museum’s mission and how well they compare to other artifacts in the collections. We will take in objects only if they meet the requirements of the City of Waterloo Museum’s collections mandate.
- Documentation: We will consider the provenance of an object. We will also consider contextual information regarding the make and function of the object. All of this information is critical to collections management.
If an artifact(s) is wanted for the Museum’s collection, the donor will be informed and requested to sign an Object Acquisition form. Endorsement of the form transfers legal ownership of the artifact(s) to the Museum and to the City of Waterloo. If we are unable to accept your donation, we will attempt to refer you to another museum or archive that may be interested in acquiring your object.
| Attribution |
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Please label your photo or other archival information obtained from the City of Waterloo Museum with "Courtesy the City of Waterloo Museum". Browsing through our database is free, but permission to use items from the database usually come with an associated cost. Contact museum@waterloo.ca or call 519-885-8828 for current fees if you have specific requests. |
| Research |
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The City of Waterloo Museum has an extensive collection of hundreds of thousands of archival materials and collections items. Our collections are available to researchers by appointment. To arrange an appointment or submit a research request, contact museum@waterloo.ca or call 519-885-8828. Note: Depending upon the nature of the request, a fee may be charged. Staff will contact you with an estimate before beginning any work. The process of capturing and preserving our history is never complete, nor is the history itself written in stone. We are always grateful to you for pointing out any errors you may notice. Too often the years go by and the opportunity to make corrections slips away. |