Committee on the Mütter Museum - Minutes, 1986-1987

File — Box: 4, Folder: 5

Scope and Contents

From the Series: The Records of the Committee on the Mütter Museum and the Museum Council of Philadelphia consist of 4.8 linear feet of textual and graphic materials produced or related to both the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Museum Council of Philadelphia from 1932 to 2006. The collection is arranged into two series: Series 1: College of Physicians of Philadelphia and Series 2: Museum Council of Philadelphia.

Series 1: College of Physicians of Philadelphia spans the years from 1923 to 2006, although the majority of the material spans from the mid-20th century to the early 21st century. Series 1 is further divided into two subseries: Subseries 1.1: Administrative and Subseries 1.2: Committees.

Series 1, subseries 1.1: Administrative (1923-2006) contains correspondence and various other documents related to the College organization and operations. Principal correspondents include: George P. Müller, Lewis C. Scheffey, Robert H. Bradley, and Bernard Behrend. Operational plans, proposals, and renovations to the Mütter Museum span from 1975 to 2004. This subseries also contains documentation dealing with the American Association of Museums accreditation process. Included in this subseries are files relating to the museum trusteeship and Thomas Dent Mütter Will and Deed of Trust, which may be of interest to researchers.

Subseries 1.2: Committees (1937-2001) mostly consists of minutes, reports and correspondence related to the Committee on the Mütter Museum and College Collections, spanning from 1969 to 1990. This subseries contains minimum to no files solely on either the Committee on the Mütter Museum or the Committee on College Collections. Although they were technically separate committees, they worked closely together, sharing letterhead and holding meetings on the same day. Other committees represented in this subseries, such as the Committee on Deaccessioning and Mütter Museum Policy Subcommittee, contain little documentation. This subseries also consists of files dealing with the Mütter Trust and curators and committees of the Mütter Museum.

Series 2: Museum Council of Philadelphia spans from 1961 to 1996 and is divided into three subseries: Subseries 2.1: Administrative, Subseries 2.2: Committees, and Subseries 2.3: Projects and Affiliations.

Series 2, subseries 2.1: Administrative (1961-1996) contains meeting minutes, correspondence, executive files of President Worden, and various other documents related to Council organization and operations. Meeting minutes from 1978-1996 are essentially business meeting minutes. In 1985, minutes of the Executive Committee are interfiled with the business meeting minutes. During this time, the Executive Committee was variously known as the Executive Board and Board of Directors. Researchers should note that Executive Committee files are also found in subseries 2.2: Committees. Correspondence from Clair Cuddy, of the Smithsonian Institute, and Dorris Fanelli, President of the Museum Council, relate to “Beyond the Blackboard,” which is documented in subseries 2.3: Projects and Affiliations. This subseries also contains files dealing with annual reports, by-laws, financial reports, planning, legal matters, samples of stationery and a floppy disk of an undated Museum Council calendar.

Subseries 2.2: Committees reflects the various standing and ad hoc committees supported by the Council existing from 1977 to 1991. For purposes of organization, this subseries is arranged alphabetically. Major standing committees within this subseries are the Curators and Registrars Committee, Education Committee, Membership Committee and Public Relations Committee. The files on these committees mostly consist of minutes, reports and correspondence. The Membership Committee files contain material related to membership applications, honorary fellows, and the Museum Service Award. There are several committees, such as the Safety and Security Committee, which have little documentation in this collection. The Executive Board was originally designated the Executive Committee; some of its files are located in the Administrative subseries.

Subseries 2.3: Projects and Affiliations (1978-1996) contains files related to projects undertaken by the Council or that relate to joint projects with other organizations. The Collection Care Training Program (1988-1991) was a major project started by the Council. Significant collaborations and affiliations included the Key to Discovery Project (1983), Beyond Blackboard (1986-1988), Warm-Up to Museums (1987-1988) and Direction Philadelphia (1989-1990). This subseries also includes photographs and ephemera from Warm-Up to Museums. Researchers should note that related materials to dedicated files for certain projects can usually be found in other files, such as correspondence, meeting minutes and reports in this series.