How to Donate an Object to the Henry County Historical Society

1. Call us at 419-592-8006 and let us know what you want to donate. Or write us: Henry County Historical Society, P.O. Box 443, Napoleon, OH 43545. Or email us at .
2. We will arrange with you a suitable time for someone to come look at the object(s) you wish to donate. We will gather as much information as we can about you and the object at this time.
3. If a visit is not convenient, we will send you a form, called an Accession Inquiry Form, in the mail. The form is necessary so that we can gather as much information as possible about you and the object(s) you want to donate.
4. The Preservation Committee will make a decision on your donation as quickly as possible. We cannot accept all donations -- sometimes an object would have a better home in a different organization, or perhaps the HCHS already has one or more of the objects and cannot use another.
5. If your donation is one that the Society can use, arrangements will be made to pick it up, and you will be asked to sign a Certificate of Gift that conveys full ownership of the object(s) to the Henry County Historical Society.
6. Within a few days, you will receive a big, heartfelt thank you from the Historical Society, as well as a copy of the Certificate of Gift.
7. Your donation will be promptly cataloged and assigned a unique number that it will keep as long as it resides at the HCHS. On the form that will be filed on the donation, called the Accession Form, will be noted the donor, a full description of the object, condition of the object, a drawing or picture of the object, and the current location of the object.
8. All of the information on the object(s) will be kept permanently in a file folder. A duplicate of the file folder will placed in another building as a safety precaution.
9. All donations to the HCHS become the exclusive property of the HCHS and will be preserved to the best of the HCHS's ability.
10. The HCHS will determine the best method of displaying the object.
11. The HCHS will not make appraisals of prospective donations for tax purposes. If you want a tax write-off for the object, you must contact an appraiser yourself. The HCHS is planning to compile a list of appraisers specializing in various fields for anyone requesting assistance in establishing values of materials.