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Yakima Collects
This area in the museum is currently being prepared.
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Collecting is a basic human behavior that connects us with other cultures and our past.
The Museum Collections section will showcase the extensive and varied collections of the Yakima Valley Museum. It will show aspects of museum collection practice including why certain items are selected for collection, how they are acquired, and the process of bringing them into the museum and storing them. Exhibits will also explore why individuals and institutions collect and offer information on proper collection practice and care.
Since its founding in 1951, the Yakima Valley Museum has amassed a collection of over 40,000 objects. Many of these objects were collected by individuals before being donated to the museum. How and why do individuals and museums collect? The exhibits in this section will explore this question and display ever-changing selections of rarely seen objects from our own collections, offer a space for small exhibits of local significance or from local private collections, and illustrate how you can best care for your own treasured possessions.
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New collections storage rooms and improvements to existing storage rooms will provide better access to, and security for, museum collections. Computer terminals in the office and storage rooms will provide access to collection records, object histories, and climate monitoring.
High-tech components and computer stations will allow visitors to browse through our collections. Like most museums, only a fraction of our full collections can be exhibited at any one time, and some objects are so fragile that they would be damaged by ongoing exhibition and exposure to light; these objects will be available through computer stations that will offer images and information.
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The Yakima Valley Museum collections are always growing. The entire museum collection was largely formed from individual donations from community residents. Since 1995, however, the museum has developed an acquisition fund. This has enabled the museum to purchase pieces of significance, fill collection gaps, and undertake several long-overdue conservation projects. Collection weaknesses are in three-dimensional objects related to the unique local fruit and vegetable industry, items from the last half of the 20th century, and material representative of the Hispanic, Asian, and Black cultures as they exist in the Yakima Valley. More aggressive collecting has been helpful over the past several years, and exhibition planning helps guide the acquisition of new material. This has already resulted in the acquisition of a 1930s pickup truck for an exhibition on Dust Bowl immigration into the Yakima Valley in the 1920s and 1930s. And, in cooperation with the locally produced periodical GoodFruit Grower, the museum has received a rare complete 1920s fruit packing line, which will be an essential component of the Yakima Grows exhibits. |
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