Things to keep in mind when visiting the museum.

Most of the following are just standard museum guidelines, however, we must be more vigilant during this challenging time to keep everyone safe and healthy during their visit.

• The museum is a place for the preservation of historic artifacts, items from daily use from days gone by. These artifacts are cloth, wood, metals, heavy, light, delicate, fragile, and often in an “as is” condition. That means they should not be touched or handled in any way. When museum staff handle them, they wear gloves.

• Most artifacts cannot be cleaned except lightly dusted and at the most, cleaned with water only. We have created displays to give you an optimum look at the artifacts and the context in which they were used, so you do not have to touch them to examine them.

• Why no touching? Even in normal times, we do not want to touch artifacts. The oil from fingers over time, can corrode metal, stain fabric, erode wood, etc. And touching more than one object can lead to cross-contamination. And in light of COVID-19, we don’t want to touch anything someone else may have touched.

• Often our objects come out of a barn or attic and come with their own dirt, so to speak. Often, this historic patina tells a story in itself, and sometimes its removal will do more harm than good. We do not restore artifacts, we conserve them. Touching such items can disturb the patina.

• Artifacts cannot be sanitized. We cannot use chemicals on artifacts to sanitize them.

• Enter museum at usual entrance. Please give people ahead of you space. Visitors will be limited if necessary. Maintain courtesy inside and outside museum. Use of face masks may be mandatory in certain areas of museum.

• If more than one group arrives simultaneously, the second group will be asked to wait 15 minutes for the 1st group to clear the congested area.

• Then listen to instructions from staff member at reception. Follow arranged flow of traffic throughout.

• In the hallway, keep to the right side and allow people space to get through “bottleneck” areas- doorways, exhibits, etc. If there are too many people in a room, please wait for them to leave before entering.

• Do not touch anything or anyone. Do not touch your face. Refrain from touching counters or glass cabinets, as well as artifacts.

• Keep to guidelines throughout museum. Follow arrows or other indicators, if present and use common sense and common courtesy as much as possible.

• Read, take photos; learn and enjoy!