Creation, acquisition and registration are different dates
Back to the guideA provenance note should preserve uncertainty rather than fill a gap with a plausible journey. Start with a museum inventory number. The AfricaMuseum record below is a source-reading example; the campaign’s numbered entries are not inventory identifiers and have not been matched to it by title alone.
- Open the exact museum record and copy its inventory number. Keep the object title, maker or cultural attribution and material as separate fields. Do not merge records because their titles sound similar.
- Separate making, acquisition, transfer and registration. A year of registration does not establish a making date or the full circumstances of removal. Preserve question marks and qualified date ranges.
- Write a chain using only documented events. Leave the interval between them visibly unresolved. Do not draw an invented travel route or infer consent, ownership history or legality from a short donor line.
- Save the source and the unanswered question. Check current display and image rights separately before planning a visit or reusing a photograph. This explanatory diagram represents record fields and does not invent a museum object.
| Field | Example or check |
|---|---|
| Exact source | AfricaMuseum: Ndop statue (Kuba), EO.0.0.15256. |
| Making | The museum gives a qualified eighteenth-century date and a probable 1760–1780 range. |
| Registration / donor | The record says registered in 1913 and donated by Compagnie du Kasaï. These statements do not supply every earlier transfer. |
| Unresolved interval | The intervening ownership and transfer history is not established by this short record. Ask the museum’s provenance resource for further documentation. |
| Your object note | Museum/inventory __; exact date wording __; documented acquisition __; registration __; missing interval __; source/date __; current display __; reuse rights __. |
The 2016 campaign retains its own date. An archival mention does not confirm that an object is on view today. This guide helps read evidence without adding an unsupported collection history.
Sources: AfricaMuseum — EO.0.0.15256