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Glossary of Museum and Artifact Terms
- An Accession
- An accession is a particular object or group of objects acquired by a museum at one time from a single source.
- To accession
- To 'accession' is to research and record basic information about each accession -- date acquired, if it was donated or purchased, name and address of the donor or vendor, brief description and brief history of the object or objects - and assign accession number.
- Accession Number
- A unique number assigned to an accession. It is usually assigned in chronological order in the collection, and is used to distinguish between the items in that accession and from other accessions.
- Accession Register
- A record book with records for all accessions and their accession numbers.
- A Catalog
- A catalog can be a card file or a computer database that holds supplementary information about the objects such as a full description, manufacturer, provenance, history, source, condition, and other details of an object. They are filed in numerical order by accession number for easy reference.
- To Catalog
- To catalog an object is the act of examining and researching to find all the information held in a catalog.
- Classification
- A group of artifacts that belong to a general category can be given a classification. For example, objects in a Musical T&E classification includes objects such as pianos, piano benches, harps, sheet music, music stands and other similar objects.
- Collection
- A group of objects that have something in common, such as the owner or donor (such as the Point Ellice House collection of household Victoriana), type of object (for example, a Clothing collection), or a regional or geographic location (such as a Chinese Collection or Skeena Fishing Collection).
- Collections
- A term to describe all the collections in museum or holding institution.
- Document
- Proof of an objects' existence and authenticity.
- Documentation
- The process followed to establish the authenticity or existence of an object.
- File
- A set of papers or cards with information about one particular subject, arranged in a specific order.
- Gift form
- A paper signed by the donor or vendor and a museum to officially transfer legal title and ownership of an object or objects to the museum.
- Loan form
- A paper signed by both the lender and a museum that outlines certain terms of a loan, and officially transfers temporary of an object or objects to the museum.
- Provenance
- The place and date naming where and when an object originated, for example: Victoria, 1911.
- Registration
- The process of recording essential information about all objects held in a museum or holding institution, whether owned or on loan to the museum.
- Registration number
- A unique number permanently assigned to each object in a museum's collections, in order to distinguish it from all other objects. In most museums, the accession number will be included in the registration number, and the latter will be the same as the catalog number.
- Temporary Receipt
- A paper prepared by the museum, signed by the owner and a museum official, to temporarily transfer custody of the object from the owner to the museum. When the accessions committee makes a decision, a gift or loan form will be made and the temporary receipt will be voided.
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