Who holds key to museum mystery?
MUSEUM bosses have been handed a fascinating rare artefact – but they can’t use it until they trace its owner, who donated it anonymously so they ‘didn’t have to fill in any forms.’
Bosses at the Museum of Science and Industry are keen to find the kind person who sent them a humble slip of paper which could unlock key information about the transit of goods in the late 19th Century.
The donor sent in the goods invoice from 1882 in an unmarked envelope which read: “For your collection. Anon. So that I don’t have to do any forms.”
The trouble is that bosses cannot display the artefact without knowing who donated it because they cannot prove they have the right to use it.
Museum chiefs are urging the owner to come forward so they can give them a quick signature.
The artefact, dated June 16, 1882, describes how a Mr Woodsley sent seven packages of cotton yarn weighing 9 hundredweight 2 quarters and 21 pounds – roughly 492kg - to James Smierton and Sons, merchants and manufacturers of Panmure Works in Carnoustie, Dundee, Scotland.
The yarn travelled on the London and North Western railway through Liverpool Road Station before arriving in Dundee on June 19, 1882.
The museum doesn’t have anything similar from that period, so the invoice could potentially fill a gap in their knowledge of transporting goods in that era.
The story of how the donor came to own the invoice could also be as interesting as the item itself, museum bosses say.
Writing on the museum’s blog page, archives and information manager Jan Hicks says: “Very occasionally, we receive archives from anonymous donors who send documents in the post or drop them off at the information desk during a visit to the museum.
“It’s often archive material that we really want to keep.
“The frustrating thing is that without information about the person donating the archives and the story of how they came to own them, we can’t add these archives to our collections.
“If our mystery donor is reading this, we’d be thrilled if you got in touch so we can officially add this goods invoice to our permanent collection and say thank you for sending it to us.”
You can learn about how to donate to the museum by visiting msimanchester.org.uk/collection/ donate-an-object