Accession Form- Homework Post 4

Revised in red, via advice from professor Hansen...

I've been studying the accession form samples from Library of Congress and also the sample in the book Arranging & Describing. Here's what I've come up with so far, but I'm going to have to sleep on it. I think I've got a good enough idea of the collection now to know what is important to cover but every day comes with new surprises. The format in the word doc. is in tables but I'm not sure how to paste that in here. Anyhow the basics are below. I welcome feedback and advice from those of you with more experience!

Date

Accession No.

Storage Location

Creating Individual/Organization


Title


Material/Format


Quantity/Size


Condition


Scope and Content


Date Range


Arrangement


Restrictions and terms of use


Type of Acquisition


Provenance


Notes



Donor


Available for Exhibitions in Finland?

__Yes __ No

Available for Exhibitions outside of Finland?

__ Yes __ No

Accessioned By
Allison R. Schulte

Date

Homework Post 3

After weeding the leather collection (2 closets full) and finally establishing a cabinet where I can store only Tom stuff, I'm up to about 70 hrs out of 140 (if not more). I keep putting off designing an accession form because everything I come across is so very different but I need to do it this week so I have time for feedback from peers and my professor.

I've been nagging Wiki about needing more towels and finally cleared out enough space to get to the closet where they were. Of course they were Tom of Finland towels that I've never even seen before, not even at the Foundation! I can't use these in good conscience (though he tells me we have a whole box of them in storage). This means I have to go to IKEA- again, ugh. At least the bus leaves from in front of the Kiasma (the contemporary art museum). Anyhow, the other exciting news is that last night we went to dinner at the home of Juha and Kari, a lovely couple who have been together for 29 years. They were very dear friends of Tom's.


We had so much fun and the food was beautiful. Fish, potatoes, reindeer, pasha (Hungarian desert that blew my mind) and fine wines.


They brought out some of their photo albums which have pics of Tom that have not been scanned. I don't even know if our Foundation president knows they exist. Tom was modest and didn't like having his picture taken, but these are especially nice because they're so natural, just him goofing off with his friends. Juha and Kari also have a box of slides associated with Tom and a Tom of Finland original drawing that was done of Juha. They are going to bring out the other items for me to go through soon and they will be lending me the photo albums to scan. I'm working on getting our scanner set up today. I'm also going to be interviewing them but Juha says we must do this in Finnish, otherwise he won't be able to express himself properly. I'm starting lessons this fall, but sheesh that's not a language one learns over night!
Lastly they had an original work by an artist named Veikko Lundstrom. He is an artist that I had not heard of but was a good friend of Tom's and made a lot of leather for the gay community in Finland. He also did some amazing art such as wall hangings and flowers all made from leather. I'd really like to document his work and learn more about him so that I can share it with the Leather Archives & Museum (I'll be interning there this year). Wiki says Veikkos's (who is deceased) best friend works on the Viking line- the ship we take to go to Estonia. This man may be able to provide some art for me to bring the the L A & M and also some history on both Tom and Veikkos.

Treasures!

I just found a box full of personal photos and Poloroids, model photos, fan letters, correspondences, original negatives of pix Tom took for Wiki's portrait and more. We're working on getting the scanner set up. I may bring the negs back with me to LA and use the nice negative scanners in the CalArts mac lab. I also went through "Leather Closet #2" Which was full of Tom's personal leather jackets and uniforms.
I'm going to have to look into some more fundraising for materials and supplies... maybe I can raise some through the Facebook Page.

The Collection

OK I'm starting to chill out. I just wasn't quite prepared to go from living in one museum to another, but I guess it's my destiny. So here are some images of my new home with Wiki and all that I'm weeding through. I managed to pull together a nice shot of Tom's favorite leather jacket draped across a chair he used to have in his guest room with a photo taken of him wearing the jacket. This is a lot more work than I planned but perhaps it can inform my thesis somehow. Anyhow EVERYthing has to be run by Wiki, I actually almost chucked some pint glasses that were from the first gay bar in Helsinki as well as Tom's favorite ashtray. I'm learning a lot about being careful and less hasty, it's just hard to do when you're trying to make a place into your home. Luckily I was into punk and metal too so I understand the value of a lot of the records, band shirts etc.

Homework Post 2

30 hrs. Total Completed 36 of 140

First of all pardon any typos as I´m now on a euro keyboard. Hoping to have my laptop set up this weekend.

Professor Hansen help!

Here´s what I´m up against...
My fiance is not only a passionate collector, he overlaps into the category of senitmental packrat... dare I say hoarder? I actually had to convince him to throw away a piece of candy that was stuck to the floor for god knows how long even though we have a giant jar full of the very same brand of candy.
So, I´m not only trying to weed his collection for Tom of Finland ephemera but also convince him to get rid of things so that there´s room for ME in my new home. I´ll admit he has some reallllly cool stuff having been a punk in the eighties and it´s been fun finding old things that fit me, like his leather jacket and certaint band shirts. I do fall more and more in love with him as I go through his things and hear his stories, we have so much in common. On the other hand, when we went through his band shirts he had to explain each and every one to me whether or not we were keeping it. This slows down the process a great deal but at the same time I love him and I know it is hard for him to let some of this stuff go so I guess I should really grant him that time. We found 3 of Toms tank tops in those drawers, which I placed in the "Tom Box".
The best part (which is by no means done) has been going through the Leather Closet! Sooooo much stuff. So far we´ve found one pair of very fine leather wrist cuffs that were Toms. I also learned today that the clothes washer I use was Toms... sounds funny but if we use a lot of this ephemera to recreate parts of his living space in a Helsinki museum then it could be quite valuable... but for now I need it! It´s really amazing to me to think that in Los Angeles I was sleeping in Tom´s bed and in Helsinki I´m using his washer and drinking out of his cups. Quite a lot of intimacy for a woman to have with a gay man who has passed away...