Re: Closing up shop

[Ed Margerum <EMARGERUM@mecn.mass.edu>]

Date sent: 23-JUL-1995

I am sorry to see MICAT-L go.  It probably provided more information
than was immediate obvious.  I myself sent off a number of private e-mail
responses to inquiries rather than through the list because as an
'outsider' I did not feel that responses to the list from people who
were not curators were really welcome.

There really is a need of a list dealing with all aspects of
historical musical instrument care, repair, reproduction
and research.

I sometimes get the impression, perhaps because I have no intimate
contact with conservators, that the dominant attitude toward musical
instruments in collections is to regard the instruments as archival
artifacts allowed to crumble into dust with minimal
interference.  Perhaps I am wrong, but there seem to be
notable collections which fall apart in their cases, or are stored in
basement boxes available only to the most eminent of scholars. If I am
wrong, perhaps someone can enlighten my ignorance.


Ed Margerum
emargerum@mecn.mass.edu