What happens to an object after a museum acquires it?
Before a new object can find its permanent home in the National Building Museum’s collection, it needs a number, a photograph, a place in the database, and a safe place to live. Behind the scenes, collections staff carefully document, clean, digitize, label, and house each new acquisition so that it can be found, understood, and cared for years to come.
In summer 2026, Collections Management Intern Mia Garcia worked through a backlog of uncatalogued accessions to document, digitize, and rehouse them. After learning the Museum’s preferred methods from the collections management staff, Mia developed an efficient process for working through the accession groups while making sure each object was thoroughly documented and properly cared for.
So, what exactly does that process look like?
Step 1: The Accession Group
An accession group of objects can range from a single object, like a kiln tester, to up to hundreds of objects, like pieces of dollhouse furniture. The process begins with receiving the items, unboxing them if necessary, and deciding the order to work through the group.
For the recent addition of maquettes created by Raymond Kaskey, for example, the objects were all wrapped, boxed, and ranged in size. By unboxing first and evaluating the size of the objects, Mia was able to prioritize smaller objects to complete the grouping more efficiently.
Step 2: The Spreadsheet
Rather than uploading each item’s information directly into the Museum’s database, PastPerfect, fields are first filled out in Excel spreadsheets and then uploaded all at once. This process saves time and allows for continued verification throughout the project. The spreadsheet captures information such as the specific collection, accession number, object number, title, description, context, material, date, dimensions, condition, provenance, and location. While these fields cover what is needed for most 3-D objects, depending on the type of collection, fields are changed or added that are specific to the object type. Photography, for example, include fields regarding negatives, prints, and photographer/studio.
Step 3: Is it Clean?
After finishing the written documentation, the objects are evaluated for any excessive dust or dirt before digitization and rehousing. Simple dry cleaning is done using a clean cloth for large and flat surfaces, while a soft-bristled brush and an air puffer are used for the smaller and delicate areas.
The Kaskey maquettes, for example, were originally stored in Kaskey’s studio space and had accumulated a large amount of plaster dust and dirt over time. Carefully removing that buildup was an important part of preparing the objects for their new home in the Museum’s collection.
Step 4: Take a Picture and Name It
Digitizing objects is important not only to know what an object looks like, but to document its condition for future reference. Written information on an object’s condition is recorded in the spreadsheet, but an image can also be used to compare an object to its initial condition if damage occurs. For 3-D objects, a physical picture is taken using a DSLR camera and photography equipment including lightboxes, neutral backdrops, and an overhead camera setup to capture high-quality images. A flatbed scanner is used to capture images for prints and photo negatives, while larger drawings and flat paper objects require a wide-format scanner.
After digitizing the objects, the files are placed in the accession group’s processing and documentation folder and renamed with the object’s number. A fun part of this process is using Scrabble tiles to show the object number when photographing an object, which makes the later renaming process more efficient.
Step 5: What is its Number?
Next, the objects receive a physical label to identify the object’s number at a glance. For larger 3-D objects, a small number is printed onto a piece of archival paper and attached using Liquitex and a pair of tweezers. For works on paper, the number is lightly handwritten with a soft pencil on the reverse. Textile objects receive a tag sewn on with the number written or printed, and small objects can either be placed into a labeled plastic bag or have a paper tag tied around them. It is important that the method used for labeling is safe, prevents damage, and reversible.
Step 6: Make it a Home
The objects now needed to find their homes within the collection storage spaces. Some objects are immediately placed into suitable housing upon arrival, but many need custom housing or space to be found within the Museum’s collection storage areas. Larger 3-D objects are placed on numbered and labeled shelves lined with foam. The photography collections require separation into folders and placement into boxes. For custom-made boxes, large pieces of blue board are measured, cut, and glued to the required size. If necessary, foam trays are made to separate objects and protect them when they need to be stacked.
Mia cataloged approximately 14 accession groups, helping move the Museum’s backlog of uncatalogued objects forward.
While the process involves many individual steps, having a clear method makes the work efficient and accurate. Every carefully documented object becomes part of a collection that can be searched, studied, and cared for well into the future.
For Museum visitors, much of this work happens behind the scenes. But every object on display or safely stored in the Museum’s collections has a story, and cataloging is one of the ways the Museum makes sure that story can be accessed for generations to come.
This post was written by Mia Garcia, a Summer 2026 National Building Museum collections intern and second-year Museum Studies Graduate student at the George Washington University. She is passionate about protecting cultural heritage and the objects housed in museums and is pursuing a career in collections management and museum registration. To learn more about internships at the National Building Museum, click here.