What Should Be The Future of The Marin History Museum?

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Marin History Museum

What Should Be The Future of The Marin History Museum?

Posted by: Michael Macintosh - July 30, 2015 - 6:23 PM PDT

What should be the Mission of a local history museum?

Should a local museum's Mission Statement include being a safe place to accept, on behalf of generous donors, items relevant to local history? Should a local museum be a place to engage younger audiences through school field trips? Could museums be a place we donate time and learn the value of philanthropy? Might a local museum be a place of local pride, where we take turns building and growing the museum when fortune smiles upon us financially?

I think the answer to all those questions is yes.

We all know a museum is supposed represent the local community as prescribed by its founders and preserve its artifacts and collections. What makes a history museum interesting is when it can illustrate the changes from then to now and invites us to imagine what the future can be. Museums reinforce the continuity of an ever changing community.

Today many small museums are starting to ask, what is our relevancy in the 21^stcentury? How do we reengage our younger population brought up on instant gratification with video games? How do we reinvigorate and instill the value of community if more of the things that bind us are lost?

But what if a community built up a substantial monetary fund restricted for the building of a permanent museum to house our artifacts, a place of civic pride and then that trust was not honored?

Sadly, the Marin History Museum is one of many small museums that are floundering today looking for relevancy. As long as museums can find honorable people to altruistically run their boards, all is well. The first and foremost mission of every museum board member should be to help raise money, not spend it. Anyone can spend money; it takes leadership, intelligence, and integrity to raise money.

However, what if people join a small museum board for political gain or with the intent to pay themselves over-sized salaries or to liquidate the collections?

Shouldn’t the monies and artifacts so generously donated to a museum be safe for future generations to study, learn and enjoy? Or as with the Marin History Museum, should a nonprofit, public museum be a place for a board to spend all its money on questionable ventures (approximately $8,000,000.00) and then sell off our one-of-a-kind artifacts for pennies on the dollar of their value: artifacts sold without provenance are forever after lost to our future generations?

I ask the above questions to engage your imagination about what the future of the Marin History Museum can be. Do we want to protect all the unique artifacts so generously donated to the community, to you and me, and to our future families? Or do we want our shared heritage to be squandered, needlessly?

Please open and read the accompanied spreadsheet. This spreadsheet illustrates almost 340 Marin items recently liquidated by the Marin History Museum. This liquidation of items took place after burning through almost $8,000,000.00; most of which were in restricted funds to build a permanent museum. There is nothing to show for it. All the money is gone.

As an example, one of the items recently sold from the MHM collection was the Sais family trunk. Domingo Sais purchased the first piece of land in California outside of a Spanish land grant in 1836. This important purchase encompassed the RossValley and so much more. So ask yourself, how could our current Marin History Museum Board sell the Sais family trunk for $275.00? After the 50% commission we netted $137.50. It was quietly sold without providence as a “decorative item.”

Another example is the sale of Marin's beloved first car, our 1904 Curved Dash Oldsmobile. This car was the 166th registered car in California. Wilbur Thayer purchased this car new in 1904 and ferried it to San Rafael. The Thayers wanted to share this asset for perpetuity with all Marin residents and gifted it to the Marin Historical Society (later MHM) in 1960. The current board quietly sold our 1904 Olds (condition #3) for $15,000.00. This allowed the current board to loot the restricted restoration fund of $13,000.00. A few months later Draggone Auctions sold a similar 1904 CD Olds (condition # 2 - a little better condition than #3) for $92,700.00!

Then there are the Donahues. Mr. & Mrs. Peter Donahue, credited as: founders of PG&E; bringing the Rail Road to Tiburon and Santa Rosa; building one of San Rafael's fanciest homes on Lincoln Avenue.

In 1894, San Fransicso's famour artist, Rupert Schmidt, created bronze busts of the Donahues. Their bronze busts served as the Mascots of our Museum for years until they were sold out of a garage / estate sale in Auburn for only $5,000.

Schmidt's bust of Ulysses S. Grant still resides in from of the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. the

The attached spreadsheet lists over 300 additional items sold from the Museum collection. Our history lost forever.

Are any of the items on this attached list from your family? Did you donate your family treasures just to be sold off for quick cash today and forgotten tomorrow? Please look at the list and demand accountability of the MHM board for their actions.

If you want to save our history, your community, and your museum then share your opinion and write an email to all of the people involved with the operation of the Marin History Museum.

Include all the authorities investigating what happened to the money and artifacts. We need to come together as a community and stand together to preserve our past. Make it known that as a community; we do not support spending our hard-earned donated money for wild ideas and expenses that come to naught.

The Mayor of San Rafael, Gary Phillips, has taken a stand against the selling off our history. He speaks with our community and for our community.

For more information please go to https://oag.ca.gov/charities. Click on the Registry Search Tool link; located under Charity Research Resources. Or go to the Secretary of State, Charities and look up MarinHistoryMuseum. There you can view the Marin History Museum tax returns, “990”s. When you review the amounts the executive directors and some other parties charged our Museum, you will be more than disappointed.

There was no altruism; this was a private piggy bank for a few.

A single voice can not shout above the MHM Board’s excuses, but our joined voices can bring down the walls of silence and the masks of no accountability.

You can also go online and read the articles about the MarinHistoryMuseum in the Marin IJ. Articles written after April 2015, all condemn the current actions of the MHM board.

Help the Save Marin History group instill a new altruistic board. Help us stop MHM efforts to dissolve our museum. Why would they want to dissolve the MHM? To hide their financial records of what they did?

I hope you will review the accompanied spreadsheet of sold items and ask not what your local museum can do for you, ask what you can do for your local museum. This is how we find our relevancy in the 21^stcentury. This is how we build and engage the continuity in our communities today and tomorrow. Save Marin History has stopped the MHM from selling your/our artifacts. Please join us in rebuilding your/our local museum so it reflects your family and our accomplishments.

Please write everyone and tell them what you think.

Thank you.

Michael Mackintosh

Your neighbor

Attorney General, Marin DA, SR Mayor, Supervisor, Fairfax Mayor:

Christopher Lamerdin: Christopher.Lamerdin@doj.ca.gov

Elizabeth Kim: Elizabeth.Kim@doj.ca.gov

Earl Titman: ETitman@marincounty.org

Gary Phillips: Gary.Phillips@cityofsanrafael.org

Damon Connelly: DConnolly@marincounty.org

Barbara Coler: bcoler@townoffairfax.org

The Marin History Museum Board: