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Presentation 04:
Collecting at the Close: How to Turn the End into a New Beginning
Alexander Gates
In November 2018 General Motors announced the closure of the Oshawa, Ontario, Canada assembly plant, which had produced more than 20 million motor vehicles over 112 years. The Canadian Automotive Museum, located just a few miles away, had just over one year to prepare for the scheduled closure and decided what to collect for future generations and how to communicate its history to the public. Now, a year after the closure of the Oshawa Assembly Plant, the Canadian Automotive Museum has acquired important archival collections, strengthened its position in the community, opened a highly successful exhibit, and built a new relationship with General Motors of Canada. Gates will discuss how this event lead to numerous outcomes from acquisitions to exhibition creation, and most importantly for a not-for-profit charity, creating new partnerships and fundraising opportunities.
Bio: Alexander Gates has served as the executive director and curator of the Canadian Automotive Museum since 2014. A graduate of Drake University and the University of Toronto, he began his career as the Executive Director of the North Berrien Historical Museum in Coloma, Michigan, where he is still an honorary citizen.
Presentation 05:
Paving the Way for the Digital Auto Archives
Jim Volgarino, Bob Schmitt, Mark Vargas
Many automobile museums have some amount of archival or library material that may require digital cataloging, conservation, and preservation. This session focuses on two current projects to locate and describe those materials. Jim Volgarino and Bob Schmitt, members of the Society of Automotive Historians, will discuss a project to locate archival collections and an effort to compile digitization standards from a variety of sources. The CarLibrary.org (http://www.carlibrary.org/) investigates several approaches to organizing the inventory, photographs, documents and other materials that are part of an auto collection or museum. The site also encourage digitization of all automotive resources at all levels – individuals to institutions, and encourages coordination of digitization efforts at all levels to avoid duplication. Mark Vargas, of the Revs Institute, will discuss the digital and metadata standards and best practices used to create the Revs Digital Library ( https://library.revsinstitute.org/digital/ ) of over 670,000 images, scanning of public domain sales literature, manuals, and books, use of WorldCat, interlibrary loan, and a large new film project. Mark will discuss the Revs Institute goal of sharing information as widely as possible through the world’s largest library network.
Bio: Jim Volgarino spent a majority of his youth yearning to know as much about cars as possible, hanging out with the local hometown gearheads while developing a skill for manipulating words as a writer. Out of high school he paid $40 for his first car, traded it to build a custom ’53 Chevy and headed off to college to become a famous journalist. Uncle Sam intervened, marriage followed along with family and a working career in the print/graphics business, but never far from anything automotive he could slip into the mix. A bit of drag racing, a land speed license at Bonneville, restoring/rebuilding/modifying a long list of vehicles and finally retirement where the focus has gone back to a first love…writing about cars. An interest in historical preservation was piqued when he found no information about his hometown’s 1/4 mile dirt track resulting in gathering some 1200 images and writing a book documenting the track’s 35-year history.
Bio: From an early age, Bob Schmitt built model cars and airplanes in Chicago until he bought his first vehicle at age 14. It was a 1955 Vespa with a sidecar – to speed up and increase newspaper deliveries. Bob’s first car was a $750 Jaguar XK-120, sold in 1966 when he began active duty in the Marine Corps. The Corps eventually sent him to Honolulu, where he bought a derelict 1952 Frazer Nash Mille Miglia in 1975. To learn more about the Frazer Nash marque and make connections, Bob used his IT experience to start FrazerNash-USA.com website in 1997. The Frazer Nash restoration wasn’t completed in New Zealand until 2005. Volunteer work at two Los Angeles auto museums and membership in several car clubs increased Bob’s interest in auto history. More than 10 years ago, Bob used open-source digital library software to make and distribute auto history collections on disk. These disks included digitized copies of ‘50s auto racing publications made in 2004 by the late Bob Norton, a JPL employee. Bob joined the NAAM in 2014 when it held a conference at the Petersen Automotive Museum and joined the SAH a few years later. Bob retired in 2007 from a career in IT contracts management. He still owns the Vespa and sidecar.
Bio: Mark A. Vargas is Chief Operating Officer and Director of the Library and Archives at Revs Institute®. Previously, Mark was Dean of Learning Resources Services at St. Cloud State University and Library Director at Saint Xavier University. He was an archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Assistant Archivist at MIT. Mark received a M.A. in History and M.L.S. in Library Science from the University of Maryland.
Presentation 06:
Copyright, Customs and Other Bad Things at the Border
Chris Butler, Josh Knerly, Jeanne Seewald
This session will address a number of issues in the international aspects of copyrights as well as other issues that can arise in international transactions – buying, selling, importing, etc. With respect to copyright, although an “international copyright registration” does not exist, many nations are parties to various international copyright treaties and conventions that extend protection to foreign works. For example, in addition to other treaties and conventions, the United States is a party to the Berne Convention, the Buenos Aires Convention, and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), each of which aim to set certain minimum standards of protection in member nations. While the international copyright treaties and conventions attempt to provide a harmonization between the copyright laws of individual nations, the specific rights extended to the author of a work in a foreign country is highly dependent upon that nation’s specific copyright laws. Copyright is, however, only one aspect of the international issues that can arise in the acquisition abroad or borrowing from abroad of property for exhibition purposes. Source country ownership laws can impact the export, import and right to possess many types of property – including automobiles. Furthermore, clearance of U.S. customs can lead to unintended consequences, including potential seizure and forfeiture of property improperly imported in the United States. Many of these aspects will be explored during this session.
Bio: Chris is an associate at Hahn Loeser. He concentrates his practice on intellectual property and business law matters. With a background in law and business administration, Chris uses the intersection of the two disciplines to effectively guide clients through the intricacies of intellectual property matters as well as their effect on larger business decisions. Chris brings unique insights to his clients on how intellectual property assets influence brand awareness and affect financial and purchasing decisions.
Bio: Josh Knerly is a partner at Hahn Loeser. He focuses his practice on matters involving art transactions, nonprofit corporate law, closely held and family-owned businesses and international commercial transactions. Josh serves as Co-Chair of the Firm’s Non-Profit Institutions section. In his art law practice, Josh has represented museums, foundations, trusts and collectors in the acquisition, disposition, lending and borrowing of and estate planning for works of art, including domestic and international transactions and dispute resolution.
Bio: Jeanne Seewald serves as a member of Hahn Loeser’s Board of Directors and focuses her practice on intellectual property, general business, and mergers and acquisitions. Jeanne is board certified in intellectual property law. Jeanne works with clients ranging from startups to established companies.
