Museum Research
How the museum got its brain: 20th-century collections cataloguing…
Dr. Tehmina Goskar, Art Fund Headley Fellow, talks about the importance of museum catalogues plus an interview with Matt Howell, ex-museum cataloguer.
Collections are what make museums unique and valued cultural institutions. Without them, we would just be a building, a venue or a stage – something that could be anything.
Without properly researching and documenting its collections, museums cannot do many things. They can’t share accurate knowledge and history, they can’t create stimulating and unique activities for schools and communities, and they can’t make compelling exhibitions. Documentation and research are the foundations of catalogues that list and describe each object.
The museum’s catalogues function like the museum’s brain, a long memory of what we have, why we have it, how it got here, and from where and whom.
Index cards sometimes contain useful extra information. 
Detail of souvenir walking stick relating to famous Cornish boxer Bob Fitzsimmons
While researching at the museum, I have forensically examined the museum catalogues of this museum and that of the now defunct Camborne Museum whose collections we inherited via Kerrier District Council in 2005. These catalogues are in many formats: handwritten registers, handwritten index cards with one card per object, often with stunning hand-drawn illustrations on the back (although some also contain black and white photographs), typed registers and cards, then finally computer databases.
At the Museum of Cornish Life, the whole history of 20th-century museum cataloguing is evident, from hand-written registers to the Modes database we currently use to document our collections. The museum’s own archives also contain incredible stories about important moments in the museum’s history, including grand cataloguing and re-display efforts.
Before the era of searchable databases, index cards were organised according to classifications and categories. Many were created ‘in-house’ but others followed conventions that spread throughout the museum sector. Today, these categories are less important and may not make much sense today. I am so pleased the museum kept its index cards as sometimes they reveal information about objects which, for whatever reason, did not make it onto the collections management database.
Just today, the Costume Pod (collections volunteers working on our stellar clothing, dress and textiles) took over the 1970s index cards to help them continue to identify and properly describe items that have not made it onto our Modes database.
Cataloguing as job creation
By the mid-1970s unemployment in the UK was a major problem being tackled by the governments of the time and the Manpower Services Commission created the Job Creation Scheme specifically to address strategic training and employment needs for industry and the public sector. One of the major beneficiaries of this job creation scheme were museums, and one of the critical activities identified as being highly beneficial for nurturing transferable skills, was museum documentation.
In 1976 the museum embarked on an 18-month refurbishment, from the old Butter Market, extending into the Meat Market. The refurbishment project was under the auspices of Kerrier District Council which was then the governing body of both Helston and Camborne museums.
At the time, the museum had no employed curator or director. The Chair of Trustees was Commander A.E. Simmonds, retired from the Royal Navy, and Honorary Curator. A cataloguer from the time described Cmdr. Simmonds as initially being skeptical of a young team’s ability to sort out a museum’s collections and catalogue them in preparation for new displays, but apparently he was quickly won over by the dedication and effort of the new museum recruits. The museum reopened in March 1978.
1977 and all that
What follows is an interview with ex-museum cataloguer, Matt Howell [MH], who responded to my call to people who knew something of the museum’s history in March 2022. He now lives in the US and recollects his time at this museum and briefly at Camborne Museum. Below, you can listen to a radio interview with the museum team who oversaw the 1976-78 refurbishment.
I learned more about farming, mining, saddlery and wheelwrights from handling and getting to know the tools/materials they used, than I could ever get from books.
Matt Howell, museum cataloguer.
Matt was a key person in the museum team brought in to modernise the museum, and critically, to re-catalogue the a significant part of the collection, including giving objects a brand new set of accession numbers. Matt and the other cataloguers were supported by Gaynor Cole, museum officer for Penwith District Council and Shaun Kavanagh, graphic designer.
1970s index card describing a microscope in the museum’s collection. 
Some index cards have photographs of objects stuck on the back.
His impact and that of other museum workers on the job creation scheme can be felt to this day. The imprint of this huge effort can be seen physically on the objects, where their unique numbers were painted on, and in the modern catalogue and database as they all begin with the number 1977. Most museums will use the year the object was accessioned, rather than acquired, as the starting point in the accession numbering sequence.
When did you first join the museum, how did it come about, and for how long were you with the museum?
MH “The project was a government funded ‘job creation’ scheme that started in October 1976. I believe the programme was supposed to run for a year but since I was hired late to replace a team member who left at the end of May ’77, I stayed on with the graphic designer on the team, to complete the display work. After the project officially ended in April ’78, I was given an extension till June ’78, to finish up a report outlining our work and a template for the future upkeep of the museum, and also to help out with recommendations to reorganize the Camborne museum.
Wilf Archer, who ran the county arts and leisure department (and the Camborne leisure center) administered the program, along with Gaynor Cole, who I think was in charge of the museums in Penzance.”
What attracted you to cataloguing museum objects?
MH “I’ve always had a fascination with history, have a degree in history and was very lucky to find a job in that field in Cornwall at the time. I had worked as a docent [guide] at a historic home in the summers, but had no experience (or interest) in cataloging. It was quite satisfying work though – we worked in a loft area right behind and above the cider press. We’d collect objects from the floor (or storage in the meat market building), do whatever research we could, assign catalogue numbers and enter them on an index card, along with a description and measurement, and a freehand drawing on the back. We’d spray the drawing with a fixative and then write the catalog number on the object in ink and varnish over it.”
What other aspects of the museum were you involved with, e.g. displays?
MH “The initial brief was to organise and catalogue the sprawling collection at Helston, but we ended up redesigning all the displays too. With the help of the graphic designer on the team, we were able to redesign the floor plans, reconfigure all the bays/displays and upgrade the signage. I wrote many of the scripts for the signs, which were based on the research we’d done, and Sean would painstakingly use Letraset on card stock to create them. We’d then cut plexiglass to cover the signs, cut dowels and screw them to the display stands, which were refurbished with a brown hessian material.”
Who else was working at the museum at the time, and did you get a chance to work together?
MH “There were 4 people on our team – me, Sean (the graphic designer), Cathy and Joyce (don’t recall their last names). Commander Simmonds was the ‘curator’ and Charlie was the custodian. Hours were somewhat flexible but we did spend a lot of time working together.”
What kinds of things was the museum looking to collect, or were you cataloguing things that were already at the museum?
MH “Cataloging the existing collection – believe me, that was more than enough. Not sure if we were even able to finish everything!”
What were your favourite parts of the collection?
MH “I was a big fan of the objects related to the 19th-century trades in Helston – I learned more about farming, mining, saddlery and wheelwrights from handling and getting to know the tools/materials they used, than I could ever get from books. I thought the collection gave a lot of ‘real life’ insight into Cornwall’s mix of agriculture and industry in that fascinating pre-industrial revolution period.”
There are some achingly beautiful illustrations on the back of the index cards used, were any of these yours?
MH “Oh yes! If these are the index cards we worked on, which I assume they are, probably a few thousand are mine. I remember after a few days of working there, our manager, Gaynor, reviewed the cards I’d done and asked me if I was sure I hadn’t done this type of drawing before! Hidden talent, I guess!”
Broderie anglais embroidered garment illustrated with detail. 
Three clay tin smelting crucibles. 
A sheaf of corn used ceremonially for the Crying of the Neck to mark the end of harvest. 
Baby Daisy vacuum cleaner.
Museum cataloguing makes the news!
MH “BBC South West sent a crew to interview us, I think a few weeks before the reopening. I recorded the audio for the segment (no video recorders then!) and in it you can hear Sean, me and Gaynor.”
