Moving a Museum

How do you move 1.75 million collection items? Very carefully, and with a lot of help!

On December 11, 1999, the Science Museum of Minnesota opened the doors to a new, purpose built building. Although the actual move took place during summer and fall 1999, the giant task of packing and moving the museum’s collections began years earlier. Spearheaded by collections management and conservation staff, planning for the collections move began in 1995 and packing commenced in 1997 with an army of staff, volunteers, and contractors.

Collections and curatorial staff drew from their experience of moving the museum’s collections and published Moving the Mountain: the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Guide to Moving Collections to pass on to you the methods developed along the way, dos and don’ts, and especially the lessons learned.

The methods and advice are still highly relevant today and represent best practices in collections care.