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Thanks to all who have already responded to the poll. I think that donations are the principal source of acquisitions for both institutions in part, although I claim no understanding of the Internal Revenue Code, because there may be a tax advantage to the donor and so far the institutions find this meets their needs.

I share no confidence that a fund raising drive for acquisitions would be met with much success. I am only aware, historically, of the specific fund raising that took place when AMFF purchased the Benjamin Welch/Daniel Webster rod directly from Webster’s descendants when it was offered to the museum. I also believe that those specific funds were realized from a small number of specific contributors. When a large museum takes a run at a specific object at Christies or Sotheby’s for example, it has specific patron/donor/trustees lined up to fund the acquisition or knows in advance who will financially back up the purchase. Smaller institutions quite simply do not have this level of support.

These institutions also have other daily problems to cope with, some expected, some not. The Catskill institution, for example, has suffered of late with physical plant problems with a furnace, roof, and ceilings. When such problems come up, just like your house, car, or whatever, spending precious funds on further acquisitions becomes extremely difficult to justify.

With regard to much of a collection not being on view, I think that is true of any such institution. What the Metropolitan in New York has tucked away is enormous. But it only has, and can only maintain, so much open public space. There are no bare walls.

If a benefactor wished to fund and create an endowment to maintain additional gallery space, it might well be met with favor. But without both financial pieces in place there is only so much physical space that a budget can carry. That is not say, however, that everyone would feel comfortable donating an item (rod, reel, catalog, whatever) thinking it might simply go behind a locked door for eternity, never to be seen again. Were I to consider such a donation I would want a straightforward discussion with the institution regarding its policy on changing gallery displays and specifically the manner in which it makes its collection accessible for research and scholarship. As the American Association of Museums (which is the accrediting institution for the AMFF) makes clear, the entire collection is held for the public trust, balanced, naturally, by staffing and risk management issues.

Finally, and IMHO, I do not think for a moment that the general public, i.e., not us, finds a multitude of fishing rods on a wall with distinctions that may mean little to this public, to be any more “charismatic” than a display of reels or 19^th century salmon flies and related books.