DISCOVER / DONATE TO THE COLLECTION

What should be preserved for future generations? We welcome your suggestions! Thank you for considering the Museum’s Permanent Collection as a repository for your historical and culturally-relevant possessions.

Due to liability, the Museum cannot accept items without prior notice. Please do not bring or mail items to the museum unless specifically directed by collections staff.

If you would like to contribute an object, document, or photograph to the Museum’s permanent collection, please review the following collection guidelines.

THE MUSEUM COLLECTS:

• Boulder-related items (from any time period). Highest priority is given to items with a clear and specific association (provenance) to some significant aspect of the Boulder area.
• Non-Boulder items that support the Museum’s mission to “collect, preserve, and present Boulder history in order to connect residents to the past, provide a context for the present, and inspire a vision for the future”.

Suggestions are reviewed by the Museum’s Curators, Staff, and Collection Committee members (or a combination thereof). In order to be considered for acceptance (accession) into the permanent collection, an item must:

• Contribute to the interpretation and understanding of the history and material culture of Boulder County, Colorado, and its state, regional, national and international contexts.
• Be in reasonably good physical condition or a good candidate for conservation within the Museum’s resources.
• Be sufficiently complete to convey historical information.
• Either be; Boulder-related, help meet the needs of the Museum’s mission, or be otherwise sufficiently useful for research or interpretive purposes.
• Be offered free and clear, with no restrictions to the Museum.

The Museum cannot provide appraisals. Valuation is the donor’s responsibility.

If you would like to contribute an object, document, or photograph to the Museum’s permanent collection, please email us at collections@museumofboulder.org.