Something to Remember Us By: Reimagining Storage for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions

“History is for human self-knowledge,” wrote philosopher and historian R. G. Collingwood. “The value of history, then, is that it teaches us what man has done and thus what man is.”

Museums call on us to be stewards of the past so that we may be architects of our future. How we care for and preserve our art and the artifacts of our history is nothing less than a testament to our enduring commitment to understanding ourselves fully and completely.

Economic hardships over the past five years have pushed museums, archives, and similar cultural institutions to reimagine their spaces, revolutionize how they preserve their collections, and allow the public access to their history.

Throughout this journey of self-discovery and reinvention, Montel has been an active and engaged partner, engineering functional and intelligent museum storage systems to support museums in their ongoing efforts to share and preserve our history and humanity.

Fine Art Storage—Clyfford Still Museum and History Colorado

With more than 800 paintings, many large format, the Clyfford Still Museum, in Denver, Colorado, can’t help but care about the practicality of its storage space, like any museum of fine arts would. But its floor-mounted sliding art racks do more than just store their massive collection—they are part of the experience.

“Our storage rooms are actually viewable by the public on our main level,” said museum director Dean Sobel, “so the storage system and the art would essentially be on display, which is quite unusual at most institutions.”

Specimen Storage—McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity

Have you ever tried to catch a butterfly? What about 10 million?

You could invest in a reliable butterfly net—or you could do what the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity did: work alongside Montel to plan out a specimen preservation system of 77,000 glass-topped drawers so visitors can enjoy the beauty and wonder of the animal kingdom up close.

Memorabilia Storage—Baseball Hall of Fame Museum

Montel has countless archival storage solutions for documents, maps, photography, and the like, but the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, in Cooperstown, New York, reminds us that history doesn’t always lie flat and sit in neat little boxes.

Uniforms, bats, trophies—they all demand high-density museum storage as versatile as a switch hitter and as dependable as a relief pitcher fresh from the bullpen.

A New Age in Museum Storage

Montel museum storage solutions offer all the same key benefits of any Montel product: intelligent space-saving designs, available in static and mobile systems, with customizable and fully adjustable components built to last.

Our Mobilex mobile storage systems are already the most popular storage option for curators of rare books and manuscripts, offering unparalleled security and preservation by limiting unnecessary exposure.

Montel also offers the following customizable accessories to meet the evolving needs of museums across North America:

• Flat file cabinets: Low-profile, museum-grade storage for historical archives engineered for preservation and secure access.
• Door cabinets: Available in multiple sizes. Can be combined with trays, drawers, shelves, textile rolls, and pull-out racks into one adaptable system with a sealed microclimate. Perfect for fragile artifacts and sensitive specimens.
• Art racks: Floor-mounted, ceiling-suspended, or freestanding styles available for sliding art racks. Double-sided for added efficiency and ease of accessibility.