Donate an Artifact

How to donate an artifact

What to Tell Us
The more information you can tell us about your object, the better. Who used it? How and where did they use it? Who made it? How did you come to have it? What Saskatchewan story does it tell? We also need to know the object is in good condition and free from contaminants like mold, unsafe chemicals or hazardous materials such as asbestos.

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Send Us Pictures
Digital photographs of the object will help us evaluate your offer. Please send an image of what the object looks like today. Historical photographs of the object in use, or of the people who used it, are also valuable. If your object is accepted, we would be grateful for copies of these photos and the permission to use them in exhibitions, publications and online.

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What Happens Next
Your offer will be evaluated by the WDM Curatorial Department. We will check to make sure the condition of the object is suitable, compare it to artifacts already in our collection and determine if it meets the WDM’s needs. A WDM staff member will contact you once a decision is made to accept or decline your offer. We will usually have a response within two to four weeks.

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How Old Does it Have to Be?
We appreciate all offers but we can not accept everything. Storage space and resources are limited. Part of managing the artifact collection at the WDM is having to respectfully say “no” to new offers of object that are already well represented in our collection.

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What Do We Collect?
The WDM has evolved to become much more than an agricultural implement museum. We collect artifacts that show the diversity of the Saskatchewan spirit. We are interested in artifacts that represent who we are, tell a Saskatchewan-inspired story, depict an historic event or illustrate our skills and innovation.

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The WDM has lots of settler artifacts.
Unless your settler object has an exceptional Saskatchewan story, chances are we will gratefully decline it. We recommend checking with other museums in Saskatchewan to see if they would be interested in your offer of the following types of objects:

1920s vehicles Adding machines/calculators Aprons Basic hand tools Bibles Binders Buffalo fur coats Butter churns Button hooks Cameras Cash registers Children’s books Christening/baptism gowns Clocks Cream separators Crocks Dictionaries Dinnerware Doilies Dolls Encyclopedia sets

Family Portraits Early wedding dresses Fanning mills Fiction Books Furs Gas Tractors Glass insulators Lamps Looms Magazines Milk bottles Newspapers Nightgowns Pianos “Pioneer” dresses Player piano rolls Plows Portable engines Pump organs Radios Razors

Scythes Sad irons Separators Sewing machines Sewing patterns Shawls Sickles Slide projectors Stuffed animals Threshing machines Train sets Trophies Trunks Typewriters Wagons/buggies Wash boards Wedding dresses

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Donate an Artifact Form
To donate an artifact please complete the Donate an Artifact Form.

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The Paperwork
If your object is accepted by the WDM, we will send you a donation agreement which transfers unrestricted ownership to the WDM. Come in to sign the form or return the signed copy by mail. We are unable to accept loans or donations with limiting conditions such as requiring the artifact to go on exhibit.

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