In post #15, Wendy has posted two magnificent photographs by Ian Pitcher. The second is of a bottle-making machine which failed to find itself space at Thinktank.
These notes are from the minutes of a meeting of the City Council on 1st April 2003.
Councillor John Hood to the Cabinet Member for Leisure, Sport and Culture:
“Lord Mayor, we have recently given a bottle machine to the USA and a rare gauge steam locomotive has gone, I believe, to Leicester. Can you tell me what other treasures of the former Industrial Museum are likely to be given away as a result of Thinktank not honouring its pledge to take the agreed percentage of exhibits from the former Industrial Museum?”
Councillor Ian Ward in reply:
“Thank you, Lord Mayor. It is not uncommon for museums throughout the world to both request that exhibits of other museums are either loaned to them or gifted to them and it is, indeed, not unusual for the museum service here in Birmingham to make such requests. In the case of the bottle making machine, it is a machine that has no particular association with the City of Birmingham. The Museum’s current policy is to seek to exhibit items that do have a direct connection with the City of Birmingham. That particular machine came into the City’s ownership from Yorkshire, it has not been on display for a number of years, the only possibility, possible future for it with Birmingham Museum Service was for it to go into storage. Therefore, when this request came in it was given very, very careful consideration by the Advisory Board that looks at such matters. After that consideration it was decided that it would be best to offer this particular exhibit to this museum in the United States. However, before we can do that we are required to advertise the exhibit to all museums within this country to give them the first option on taking this particular exhibit. The exhibit was gifted to the City in the first instance and so therefore it is not considered appropriate that we should levy a charge on any museum that would seek to take this exhibit. All the costs of moving the exhibit, should it go to the United States, will be borne by the calling museum in the United States ….. .”