What is an Online Museum

During my time running this site Ive encountered skeptics and naysayers who say things like "a Wiki site is not a museum". I wanted to take a few minutes and explore the concept of what, exactly, a museum is and what it is that we do here at the Invader Historical Foundation.

Lets begin with what a Museum is. Merriam-Webster defines Museum as: "an institution devoted to the procurement, care, study, and display of objects of lasting interest or value."

Procurement - IHF does procure physical items in its collection. I have a growing collection of artifacts in my care: many books, photos, actual A-26 instrument gauges, crew equipment, personal effects, paintings, patches, medals, etc.

Care - IHF always ensures that these items are well preserved and cared for, always treated with the utmost respect. Whether they are items that have been donated or items that we have purchased, theh are stored in sealed containers in climate controlled environments to ensure protection anf longevity.

Study - I've spent years studying everything Invader related and I'm working on putting all of my notes and findings and information onto the website. This is not just transcribing information from a source and uplaoding it, its actual bonafide research. I hold a Masters Degree, I serve as a peer reviewer for a dozen scientific journals, I have published scientific research papers, served on research panels, and Im a Community Research Fellow at ASU's SIRC. I am well versed in archival research. My work here at IHF involves the careful cross-refernce of multiple sources including official Air Force documents, inventory records, accident reports, FAA records, military personnel records, personal interviews with survivors, and family history records to try to create as complete a history as possible. No other website, wiki, or online website that I am aware of does anything approaching this level of cross-refernce and research.

And Display - Sure, you can't physically examine my photos with your hands, but you can see them. You can't physically touch my patches and my paintings, but you can see them. You can't physically handle my other artifacts, but you can see them. But you wouldn't be able to touch these things in a physical building either as they'd be locked behind a glass case, which is home I keep them at home. So if you can only physically look at them in a building, and you can look at them on my website, what's the difference? Is there a difference?

Note that nothing in the definition of a museum dictates that it must be a physical building where the public comes. Indeed, many physical museums often have parts of their collections locked away, hidden from public view.

I procure artifacts and information about the A-26 where ever I can find it, sometimes at great personal expense, for the sole purpose of studying it, cataloging it, and making it available for eventual public consumption.

Is this website finished? Not even close. Its primarily just me working on this site by myself and I have at this moment, another 6,733 photos to clean and upload, not mention 2,500+ IARC cards to enhance and upload, plus literally thousands of pages of records from the US Air Force Historical Research Agency to transcribe and upload - over 20GB of data in total. This process takes time, but I do work on it as fast as I can and as much as I can. This project is my passion.

There's nothing that says a museum has to be a physical brick and mortar building, especially not in today's day and age. In fact, the scientific literature has many articles discussing both virtual museums and online museums.

I could just keep all of these artifacts and information to myself, but I won't. Everything I acquire, whether through donation or personal purchase, is, or will be, made available to everyone for free. Sharing and preserving the legacy of this airplane and their crews is the entire point of this endeavor. Safeguarding this information, curating it, preserving it is my lifes work, and its work that I do for free at my own expense simply because I feel that it's worthy of preservation.