Artifact Donation

Do you have something you are considering donating to the museum?

The Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial thanks you for your interest in donating to us! To fulfill our mission, we accept a variety of materials and artifacts to use for exhibitions, research, and hands on education. The Museum follows the ethical guidelines for acquiring artifacts established by the American Alliance of Museums. The Museum reviews every donation offer to determine whether it supports our mission and meets collection criteria.

What We Collect

The Museum selectively and responsibly collects items related to the battleship New Jersey, her crew and builders, all other ships named New Jersey, and to a lesser degree battleships and the wider navy in general. We are selective in what we accept into our collection and consider the following:

Relevance to our mission
If the item is already represented in the collection
Uniqueness
Storage and display considerations and limitations
Staff resources

What We Do Not Collect

The Museum does not generally collect items from the other branches of the military or the Merchant Marine with few exceptions.

Artifact Donation Process

If you’re interested in donating artifacts to New Jersey, please reach out to Ben Kane, Collections Manager, to discuss potential donation. Ben can be reached via email at b.kane@battleshipnewjersey.org or via phone at 856-966-1625 x122.

Please email a photo of your object, a brief description, and a history of the object. Battleship New Jersey collects selectively to ensure proper, responsible care of objects in our collection. We are interested in items related to New Jersey, her crew and ship builders, other ships with the name New Jersey, and the Navy and battleships more generally.

All object donations must be arranged ahead of time. Battleship New Jersey reserves the right to refuse unsolicited objects. Donation of an object does not guarantee usage in exhibits, but all items will be cataloged, preserved, and made available for researchers.

Mailed or Dropped Off Donations

We reserve the right not to accept unsolicited items. The Museum does our best to contact the sender and return unsolicited items to them. If no donor information is available, the items will be disposed of. The Museum is not responsible for any items left at the museum without prior approval of a museum curator.

Loans

The museum only accepts short term loans for the specific purpose of exhibition for a predetermined amount of time. Long term and third party loans will not be accepted as they are a significant burden on museum staff and are contrary to museum ethics and best practices.

If an Offer is Accepted

The museum will provide a Deed of Gift form to the donor to collect donor information and be signed. Then the artifact will be accessioned (cataloged and preserved) into our collection. Once items have been accessioned the curator will complete the Deed of Gift, sign it on behalf of the Museum, and return a copy to the donor for their records.

The Museum cannot guarantee that any item we accept will be placed on exhibition. Like many museums, we can only display only about 10 percent of our collection at any time. We promise to care for the items, preserve them for future generations, and make them available to researchers.

Offers must be unconditional donated gifts without restrictions, and free and clear of all encumbrances.

If an Offer is Rejected

If an offer does not meet our criteria, it will be declined and other suitable institutions will be suggested. Should the Museum have physical custody of an offer when it is rejected, we will either return the items to the donor or dispose of them with prior permission. We will not forward the items to other institutions.