Should the Sheldon Museum and Cultural Center go by a different name?
The museum’s board of directors favors such a move, but it will wait to hear from members of the Sheldon family before taking final action, said vice-president Jim Shook, who presided over a meeting last week where directors voted to support a change.
The museum is named for Steve Sheldon, a store owner and gatherer of artifacts and curiosities whose collection was housed at locations around town before construction of the museum in 1979. Sheldon’s daughter, Lib Hakkinen, served as museum director and curator from its opening until 1995.
Betsy Hakkinen Galloway, one of Sheldon’s four grandchildren, said this week she was shocked that the family wasn’t consulted earlier in the discussion. “If a new name could include “Sheldon,” that would be quite wonderful. I remember how much my grandfather was involved in the community when I was a kid.”
Talk of changing the name started years ago, Shook said, because of confusion with the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka.
The mix-up is evident in annual “Pick.Click.Give.” donations the Haines museum sometimes receives from Sitka residents. During the recent Museums Alaska conference in Cordova, museum director Helen Alten was issued a name tag that correctly identified her and the Sheldon Museum, but listed the museum’s location as Sitka,said museum outreach coordinator Madeline Witek.
“To a lot of visitors, the name Sheldon doesn’t really mean anything until they run into someone who tells them it’s a museum of local history and then they say, ‘We really want to go,’” Witek said.
Shook, who led last week’s board meeting in the absence of board president Jim Heaton, said he pushed for the vote because a name change would need to be made soon to get into schedules and advertising for next summer’s tourist season.
There’s also the issue of changing museum signs, website, letterhead and official papers.
“We’re planning events for the 2016 season. We’re either going to do it now or do it next season and I may not be around that long,” said Shook, who favors “Haines Museum of History and Culture” as a new name.
Such a name would more closely attach the museum to the community’s name, which is better known, Shook said. Also, a new name would remove any perceptions that the collection is limited to items the family collected.
“The family collection was the core of the museum when it started, but it’s just a teeny, tiny part of the entire collection today,” Shook said.
Shook, however, said he pushed the name question because it keeps resurfacing and he wanted to get past the issue. “I have no heartburn to leave it the way it is.”
Board member Lorrie Dudzik gave a stronger view. “I think the board is at the end of its discussion of whether we feel we need a name change. What exactly the change should be hasn’t been decided.” Dudzik said the issue is about bringing clarity to a name that is “wishy-washy” to visitors. “Calling it the Haines museum is good for the community because it’s Haines we’re promoting. Let’s get on the bandwagon rather than maundering in the past.”
Others, including some former museum employees, say they want the board to tread more lightly. C.J. Jones, who worked as a director and curator there from 1984-2005, said confusion with the Sitka museum isn’t insurmountable.
“That confusion has been there since Day One and everyone’s been aware of it. Lib (Hakkinen) even talked about it,” Jones said. Hakkinen was always adamant about “Sheldon” staying in the museum name, she said.
“Haines Sheldon Museum” might be a good solution and one that Lib Hakkinen would have been okay with, she said. “To me, the most critical thing is to involve the family.” Family members have continued to give to the museum in recent years, including providing an educational grant for staff training.
Hakkinen’s daughter Galloway this week said that besides comment from her family, she’d like to hear residents’ thoughts. “They might be able to come up with something appropriate as well.”
Galloway said the Haines Museum sounds limiting. “I like the name Deishu myself, but what can I say?” Galloway said.
Museum community coordinator Witek said a name change may be part of other changes that museum staffers hope to roll out about a year from now, and the decision on a name won’t be made immediately.
“People don’t have to worry about walking down the street and seeing a new sign out front. I have a feeling people will want to have a say about it. I don’t think the conversation’s over,” Witek said.
A name change wouldn’t be a big issue for the main museum sign recently posted under a new totem pole on the museum’s front lawn.
Museum board president Heaton, who created the pole and sign, said the sign is a partially-rotten remnant of one that sat in front of the museum for decades. He said he put it up with the thought that a new one would be created to replace it when a new name was decided.