Deaccessioning of any object from the National Trust collection is not to be undertaken lightly. Although at times it may be more prudent to deaccession or dispose of items in the collection than to continue caring for them, it should be understood that the National Trust for Historic Preservation does not support deaccessioning as a means of generating revenue or to simply liberate space. A careful, thoughtful, and necessarily slow process is required to determine whether deaccessioning and disposition of an object is the best course of action for the Trust, the Site, the remaining collections, and the public. (National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Collections Management Policy, 2004)
If your Site has National Trust-owned collections that are either:
1) accessioned collections that meet the deaccessioning criteria as listed in the National Trust’s Collections Management Policy, or
2) unaccessioned collections that your Site wishes to transfer to another site or otherwise dispose
Please submit this Deaccession Request Form to the Director of Museum Collections. Your Site’s request will initiate the deaccession/disposal review process. Your request will be put on the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the Collections Committee to review.
If you have questions about the deaccessioning process, please contact Terri Anderson, the John & Neville Bryan Director of Museum Collections at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, 202-588-6232 or terri_anderson@nthp.org. Please fax forms to 202-588-6232.
