What will happen to your collection when you're gone?

[Bill T]

I honestly would not leave anything to a museum having seen first hand how many operate. Better to sell it and enjoy the money or let your family enjoy the money.

Cheers, Ade.

Exactly. I would never donate anything to a museum. Sadly, alot of people end up doing just that. The stuff will sit in backrooms where over the years things get thinned out, sold off, ruined and probly end up in the curators personal collection.

Write a will with estimated prices of each item, and let your family enjoy the money or collection....whichever they prefer

[ToxicGas]

Whoever wants my collection, will have to prise it from my cold, dead hands.

Mat

[leej11]

I hope to have a son who will someday own his Great Grandfathers stuff all the way down to mine to add to his own "warrelics." As for museums, they can blank, blank and blank! I would give anything to catch the rotten bastards that stole the material donated to the Nordhausen concentration camp by my Grandfather who was there.

[Little Mermaid]

I really have no clue... I don´t have children (and never will have any) and I´m not married... so I really don´t know...

[António Fragoeiro]

Better not think about it right now, lol
Still too young
Cheers.
Nuno

[sandgroper]

My six year old daughter will get mine, I have written a list of what I have, the date I bought it, where I bought it and how much I've paid so that when the time comes at least she may have an idea what is a reasonable price for the collection individually and as a whole. It will then be up to her to decide whether she wants to sell it or keep it. On the other hand, if any of you blokes are having difficulty deciding on who to leave your collection to I would like to nominate myself for adoption..........

[Friedrich-Berthold]

RD072611-105.jpgI intend to sell my collection in the intermediate future.

[AmericanKraut]

I have the intentions on making a small private "museum" if you will in the future with a few of my friends. We will display our own stuff and keep ownership and display donations as well. I hope that my kid (If I have one) could continue it as a hobby or one of my friends could but since im 19 hopefully im not going to expire any time soon. Its just a thought ive had for a while since its a shame to see my friends and my own collection just sitting in tubs and closets. So much potential that could be passed on to educate those who are not as fortunate as most of us to be able to own history. Although I also hate most museums ive been to a WWII one that had a basement full of stuff that was covered in dust including unissued dated crates of equipment -Ben

[stuka f]

Look at the section "for sale" of the forum, when it happens!
However I think my wife will keep one or two items.
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[drmessimer]

Ade is right about not donating to museums, though I can only speak of my experiences in the United States. Museums, including the Smithsonian, receive much more than they will ever display. So, the donations end-up stored out-of-sight and out-of-mind. There is also the reality that museums often sell their "extra" things, or trade them to someone else. And there are thefts. The same is true of donating to university archives and libraries. Many years ago I donated my entire collection of WWI books and documents pertaining to such diverse subjects as POW escapes, the raid on Ostend/Zeebrugge, and microfilm rolls of the Records of the German Navy 1850-1945. None were ever cataloged, and in-so-far as I know are still languishing in carboard boxes in a store room. The same happened when I was an undergraduate working on a grant to gather the personal papers of retired general-grade officers in the 6th Army area. The donations of personal papers were huge, but nothing was ever done with them, and since the library has been torn down and rebuilt three times in the years since, I doubt that they even exist anymore.

When I turned 70, I sold all my WWII collection--four large dispaly cabinets full, knowing that no one in my family has an interest in WWI. Everything went to people who wanted it. Since then I have given my research files to other historians who can use them. When I die, everything goes to my son, who will probably sell off what's left on Ebay. And that's fine with me. If you want to see your collection go to a good home, do it before it's too late; whenever that is. Dwight