Thomas James Braun
Abstract
On several occasions in recent years at the Minnesota Historical Society, it has become necessary to transfer the original contents from several containers held within our collections. Typically, this has been done to better preserve both the container and the contents. This article explores a few of the numerous curatorial rationales behind these decisions. One particularly interesting example includes two 1-gal. bottles of perfume, which upon investigation were part of an elaborate and illegal scheme to avoid anti-liquor laws during Prohibition! Other examples include when the contents are potentially less relevant than the container, or when the contents might be harmful to the container.