Donate to Our Collections*

Do you have something you'd like to donate?

Because we have limited funds for purchasing materials, we rely upon the community to donate those precious items for research and display.

If you have something you'd like to donate, please take a minute to read our mission statement (below). It will help you understand our collecting focus.

McPherson Museum & Arts Foundation’s mission is to preserve and present for public benefit the historical, cultural and artistic heritage of the McPherson community.

Please note that we primarily are interested in collections or single items of art reflecting the culture or interests of the people of McPherson, and items associated with the history of the city of McPherson in particular. There are some exceptions to this rule, however, and it is best to contact the curator directly when in doubt. (A visit to the Museum, or a look at our website pages involving exhibits, may provide some insight.) We urge you to contact us because your generous gift may fill a gap in our collections.

Here are some of the things we collect:

Books and periodicals, personal papers (unpublished letters, diaries, etc.) Photographs and audiovisual materials

Man-made objects of all kinds

Maps and architectural drawings

 Natural objects (meteorites, rocks, fossils, etc.) and other archeological materials (natural objects and other archeological materials must come from a local site, or be collected by a McPherson resident or individual with connections to McPherson)

City and county records are archived in McPherson County by the county museum, the Old Mill Museum, Lindsborg. State records are archived by the state museum, the Kansas Historical Society.

If you have something really special but want to keep it for yourself, we can copy photographs, maps, and manuscripts to make their content available to researchers (subject to possible copyright restrictions). Bring it in for copying and then take it back home, usually the same day.

To make an offer of donation
If you have an item you think is appropriate for our collections, please contact one of the following:

For three-dimensional objects, please contact the museum staff at brettw_mcmuseum@sbcglobal.net or you can call (620) 241-8464.

For printed and published materials, photographs, personal letters, diaries, business records, maps, architectural drawings, etc., please contact Mike Lindblade, mikel_mcmuseum@sbcglobal.netor call (620) 241-8464.

If you prefer to write, please address your letter to: McPherson Museum & Arts Foundation 1130 East Euclid McPherson, Kansas 67460

Please do not mail or ship unsolicited donations to the Museum.

Staff will evaluate all items offered to the Museum. The evaluation process may take from two to three weeks up to two months. The more information you provide us on its history, the better. If we decide to add it to our collections, we will send you a gift agreement to sign and return; this transfers ownership of the item to the McPherson Museum and Arts Foundation.

Appraisals
We’re sorry, but we are unable to provide appraisals. The Internal Revenue Service questions appraisals prepared by museums because of potential conflict of interest. It is in your best interest to seek an objective appraisal of your gift. This resulted because some libraries and museums in the past were tempted to compete for gifts by providing high appraisals. Consequently, to protect both its donors and itself, the Museum, as an interested party, ordinarily should not appraise gifts made to it. Most libraries and museums now follow appraisal policies similar to ours.

When an appraisal is used for tax or insurance purposes, an appraiser must be prepared to defend his or her appraisal in court. This requires an expert knowledge of prices. The Museum is not in the business of buying and selling on a daily basis, so staff members cannot provide current market information as appraisers can. Furthermore, appraisers often have much more extensive collections of price guides and related bibliographies than can be found in most libraries.

Similar considerations apply when appraisals are requested for reasons not connected with gifts and tax deductions. Accurate establishment of a price can be a complex procedure, requiring a time-consuming search in auction records and price guides that we are unable to undertake.

The Kansas Historical Society provides a list of appraisers operating in Kansas and nearby states. Please note that the McPherson Museum & Arts Foundation does not recommend any of these appraisers over others not listed; we are simply offering this list as a starting point and as a courtesy.

Appraisers in your area can be located by checking the telephone directory under headings such as "Appraiser" and "Antique-Dealers." The Appraisers Association of America, Inc., 541 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022, will send a directory of members for a small fee. For printed works and manuscripts, the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, Inc., 50 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY, 10020, also publishes a directory of members.

For on-line resources, consult the American Society of Appraisers, the International Society of Appraisers, or the Appraisers Association of America. These web sites offer searchable listings of appraisers near you.

You should expect to pay an appraisal fee unless materials are subsequently purchased by the appraiser. For income tax purposes, fees paid for the appraisal of materials donated to a qualifying charitable institution such as a museum are deductible within the limits established by law.

* The language used in this section was adapted from information found on the Kansas Historical Society website.